Gondor High 2
by Brilaglar the Half-Elven
Summary: What would it be like to be in high school in middle Earth with Legolas, Aragorn, Arwen [and more] as your classmates? I strongly advize you to start on Gondor High 1 first. R/R. PG-13 for strong swearing and some sexual content.
1. Reject No more!

Reject No More!  
  
A week had gone by with close and distant relations over, getting to know Jake. There were nice parties and he got lots of presents, such as clothes, money, and even this drum set! Even Talim had come by with her mom so our mother's could finally meet in person and I got to talk to Talim for a while which was great.  
  
I wasn't all that surprised when she told me about her and Legolas's breakup and she too didn't seem so surprised that Darien and me broke-up too. "Maybe things will go back to normal when we go to school," she said.  
  
After that week went by, we stayed at a hotel near the Middle Earth Shopping Mall for a few days. Mom and Jake spent lots of long hours together looking at paint, bedspreads, and posters. To mom's disappointment, he wouldn't settle for light blue or green. He HAD to have red wall and a black bedspread.  
  
I bought Jake some bathing trunks and a few shirts, but he wanted to save some of his clothes money for renting a surf board. Mom had insisted we spent a lot of saved up money for Jake and that's what we did for three days. Then, came the actual vacation.  
  
My dad had decided we would go to the Bay of Belfalas for a week so we could hang on the beach, lean to surf, and to hang in a cute little hotel on the beach.  
  
"You don't need to buy my anything else, Mrs. Goldring," Jake says quietly.  
  
"All right, all right," Mom said. "It's just I haven't cared for a son in so long, I just want to spoil you!"  
  
"Well, we're on our way to Belfalas!! WHOO HOO!!" Edoran says, taking his suitcase to the door. "And my pale self is gonna look the gayest on the whole beach, but you know what? I'm gonna have fun!"  
  
Jake laughs and starts throwing all his crap in suitcases. "This is gonna be the best! I hope I can figure out how to surf."  
  
"Oh, you will..." I say, though I'm not sure HOW he's gonna learn by himself. I know I wont be able to, but I'll try.  
  
"You kids, tell us where you're going before you take off, okay?" Dad says sternly. "I'm not worried about Edoran, but you two youngins, I'm a little concerned about."  
  
I sigh. "Dad, we'll tell you where we are going always and I will have my cell on me."  
  
  
  
We drove right by the beach and all of our faces were gaping against the window. We had hardly seen much of a beach, because we lived in the middle of this big continent! We had pools, duh, but the beach was so different.  
  
"Oh, I can't wait to just feel the sand!" I cry.  
  
My dad lets us out right by the hotel, but the three of us just run out on the beach. Edoran just stays behind, feeling the sand, but Jake and I yank up our pants and start prancing around in the water in front of all these people who are in regular bathing suits on, acting if the beach was just a every day thing for them! Well, it probably was.  
  
"Oh, this is so cool!" Jake says. "I've never even been to a beach before!"  
  
  
  
Jakes POV  
  
An hour later, the folks had the stuff unpacked and we all got in our bathing suits.  
  
"Edoran! Take that white shirt off...wait a minute!" I paused and looked closer as he got closer. "AH HA HA!! It's not a shirt!! It's a FARMER'S TAN!!"  
  
He nervously looks from side to side, then grabs me and holds his hand over my mouth. I laugh in his hand and then stick my tongue out. "Oh, I know that trick," he says and then takes his hand and smears my own damn spit all over my face.  
  
"EW MAN!" I yell.  
  
"That's what you get for embarrassing me!!" he laughs.  
  
I take my shirt and wipe my face dry. "Okay, I'm going to go rent a surf board! Anyone else want to so I don't feel like an idiot?"  
  
No one answers. "Emma!! Surf with me!"  
  
"You mean, drown with you?" she says. "I'd rather go wade in the water."  
  
"PLEASE!!" I beg, poking her arm and following her towards the water.  
  
"Okay, though everyone on the beach is gonna laugh at us."  
  
"Nah," I say. "Come on."  
  
We run up to the surfboard shack. "Twenty damn dollars to rent a board for one hour? It'll cost forty dollars to practically kill ourselves!"  
  
I bite my lip. Geez, that was more money than I saw in a month back at my old house. "Fuck that. Oh well."  
  
"But this vacation won't last forever and we'll have to go home in a week so mideswell say we tried to surf."  
  
"Or even better," I add. "LEARNED to surf!"  
  
"Two long boards for an hour, please," Emma says and hands the dude forty bucks.  
  
"Come again soon!" he exclaims with a rotten-teeth smile.  
  
Emma tries not to grimace and we get two boards and head in the water. "I feel so cool just carrying a board to the water," I say. Then this gleam of gold-blond shining in the distance catches my eye and I drop the surfboard flat in the sand. "Whoa," I say and stare at the blond haired girl in a red bathing suit, tearing up this wave on her board.  
  
"She's good," Emma says casually.  
  
"Good? She's spectacular! Amazing! And...Really fiiiine."  
  
Emma looks at me and rolls her eyes. "She looks about your age. Maybe she'll TEACH you!"  
  
"Teach me? I'd be too embarrassed for her to teach me...matter o' fact, I think I'd be too embarrassed for her to see me wipeout. I wonder...can I get my money back...?" I grab the board out of the sand and head back to the Surfboard shack.  
  
"I don't think so!" Emma says and grabs my arm, yanking me towards the water.  
  
"Just look at how she surfs, Emma. Look at the way her hair seems to glow, even when it's half wet!"  
  
Emma rolls her eyes. "I'd rather not. There is not a lesbian cell in my body."  
  
"I didn't mean it like that," I say. "Oh, but I'd like to meet her!"  
  
  
  
Legolas POV  
  
I called Emma and it rang for a while. "...Hello, this is the Goldring residence. We are unable to get your call because we are in Belfalas for a week or so! If you want to call my celphone press one and if you want Emma's celphone press two."  
  
"She's in Belfalas?" I say to myself. I press two and her cell just rings and rings. "Hey, this is Emthiel. Sorry, I'm not answering. Here comes the beep. You know what to do." BEEP!  
  
"Emma, this is Legolas...uh, I just really felt like talking to you. I don't really know what to say...I miss being able to talk to you like we used to. I miss how things were when we were together. Call me, okay? Bye."  
  
I hang up and wonder if I just did something really stupid. What if she had no feelings for me anymore? I don't think I could take rejection from her. I remembered all the dances and parties, and just all the things we'd done with each other.  
  
  
  
Emma's POV  
  
Jake and me had tried for a half an hour and we had managed to tumble off, slide off the front, and get swallowed by waves.  
  
"This just isn't working!" I say. "We're so embarrassing. And that girl is getting all of our waves."  
  
"She can't help it if she's just amazing!" Jake says.  
  
"She can stop showing off and try helping us!" I snap.  
  
Just then as if she had heard me, she swims up. She looks at Jake and he just stares at her, his mouth dropping open a little.  
  
"Hey, want any help?"  
  
"Uhhh...that's okay, I'm getting it," Jake says.  
  
She smiles. "You don't have to be so independent! If you wanna learn, you gotta be taught."  
  
"Yea, I DO need help. I'm an embarrassment to the Elvin nature by now."  
  
She smiles and Jake looks as if he's just melting. "Don't worry. Everyone is like that when they start out," she says. She takes one of his feet and slides him down the board so his feet hang off of it. "Okay, when a wave comes, I'll tell you to paddle and I'll push the board a bit. When you're going, get up on your knees, and then your feet! Got it?"  
  
"Yea," he says.  
  
"Hey, am I at the right position?" I ask her.  
  
She looks over at me as if she'd never even noticed I was there! "Um, yea, you got it okay," she says, then turns her attention back to Jake. "Okay, here comes one. Paddle!"  
  
He starts paddling and I paddle too, but that girl pushes him and he takes off, while I just move about two feet.  
  
"Get up! Get up!" she yells. Jake jumps up on his knees and starts surfing! While I just lay on my board where I started.  
  
"Yay! You did it!" she screams.  
  
I paddle back to shore and head back to the surfboard shack. "JAKE! I'm going to put my board back and pay for you to have an extra hour. Have fun!"  
  
"Thank you, Emma!" he yells. "You're the best." After returning my surfboard and paying some more money, I got to my towel. I look at my phone. "One knew message. I wonder who that's from?"  
  
  
  
Jake's POV  
  
"Thank you so much!" I say to the girl. "I thought I'd never ride a wave!"  
  
"But it wasn't so hard, was it?" she says with a gorgeous, perfect smile. "I'm Iliana Jamones. You are?"  
  
"Jake Ben...Goldring."  
  
"What?" she asks.  
  
"Uh, I mean Jake Goldring. I was recently adopted, so I almost said my previous last name."  
  
"Oh cool," she says. "Um, was that girl over there your girlfriend?"  
  
"Emma?! No, she's three years older than me! She saved me from when all these kids jumped me and then her family adopted me. My other family was pretty bad."  
  
"Aw, I'm sorry," she says.  
  
I shrug. "Everything is okay now and I'm finally happy where I am. So...do you live here?"  
  
"Yes, I was even born here!"  
  
"That's cool," I say.  
  
"Iliana! It's time to head on home!" someone shouts from the beach.  
  
"Eek, I gotta go. It was nice meeting you, Jake! Hope to see you on the beach tomorrow...will you be here?"  
  
"Yes, I will!" I say.  
  
I spend the next hour surfing, though half the time I fall, but still, it's progress. Plus this beautiful girl, Iliana, was paying attention to me! Me, the total reject, that everyone at school had made fun of! The sad, lonely fucker had a hot girl acting interested. Whoa!  
  
Then the thought entered my head: I wasn't going to be able to stay here forever! How long would I have to spend with Iliana? 


	2. The Return of Earfalas

THIS IS NOT A JAKE STORY, IT IS JUST WHERE GONDOR HIGH CONTINUED!! Gondor high the original was so full that the site wouldn't let me continue to update it where, cause it had just gotten too big. So I'm just continuing where we left off.  
  
Request: that from this day forth, please don't email me with complaints about my characters or that you think some things they say are unrealistic. I'm not perfect and I can't write a chapter a day AND have them perfect. Suggestions and ideas are always welcomed though. I love them :) Just, please, hold any comments such as "I TOTALLY HATE THIS CHARACTER! Take him out of make him different please." Ah ha, cause I'll be like "hell no," cause I'm trying my best. This is not for everyone, cause a lot of you haven't been mean or anything. Thank you, keep reading!  
  
The Return of Earfalas  
  
Legolas POV  
  
As soon as the phone rang, I leapt for it. "Hello?"  
  
"Legolas, did you just leave a message? It wouldn't play..." It's Emma.  
  
"Yes, I did," I sigh. At least if I said something stupid she'd never know and now I had a chance to find out if SHE liked ME before I said anything. "I wanted to know if it's okay that I visit you for awhile. Just to talk for awhile."  
  
"You'd come all the way to Belfalas Bay to talk to me for a little while?" she asks.  
  
"Uh...oh yea, that is REALLY far," I say. "Well, I just want to say...well, how can I explain this?" There is this awkward silence. "Um...I broke up with Talim."  
  
"Oh, I know, I talked to Talim a few days ago," she says casually.  
  
"Oh, well...things weren't working out. When we tried to do normal stuff that couples do, like kissing, it felt too weird. And when I kissed her you would come to my mind. I would feel like I was cheating on you, because...well, Emma, I still want to go out with you. I don't know why we had to break it up." So much for trying to get hints that she liked me first! I'd practically told her EVERYTHING I felt!  
  
"Oh, wow," she says. I wait for a while for her to saw something more.  
  
"Emma, say something!" I say frantically.  
  
"Well, Legolas, I do still like you...but it's hard to decide over the phone and you're not here..."  
  
"Emma, my father already made arrangements for me to stay in the Rivendell castle for next week. I told my father I had important business with a singer named Darien, which was a lie, but I can hang around for a week and you can make your decision over a week! Then, I can come over almost every weekend if I have to, just to see you. And if you say no, oh well, we'll have a fun time anyways."  
  
  
  
Emma's POV  
  
I was surprised that he had planned all of this! "Wow, so you'll be around when I get home?"  
  
"Yes! In one week!"  
  
"All right," I say. "I'll give toy another try."  
  
"YES!" he says a little too excitedly. I can't believe how after all this whole, he still loves me! I guess it hasn't been SO long, but long enough so I'd think he'd get over me! Either way, if I said yes or no, we'd still have so much fun being around each other. We always DID have fun.  
  
"All right, well I'll see you then, Legolas."  
  
"Bye!"  
  
  
  
The next day was so beautiful, better than the day before if that was possible. Jake was at the beach all day looking around for his new friend and I would just laugh at him.  
  
The second he saw her he grabbed some money and ran to the Surfboard Shack and then ran into the water and tried to catch a wave so she'd see his improvement. Before she even got in the water to go talk to him, he had caught a wave and was riding back to the shore.  
  
"Hi," she said as he went by her and the wave ceased. He jumped off and smiled at her.  
  
Then they started talking and I could see that he was blushing all the way from where I was.  
  
  
  
Jake's POV  
  
I looked straight into her clear green eyes. They REMINDED me of the ocean.  
  
"Hey, Iliana. What's going on?"  
  
"Oh, nothing, I just got here. Hey, you're getting a lot better! Way good for a beginner."  
  
"Thanks, well I skateboard a lot at home so maybe that has something to do with it."  
  
"I didn't get to ask you yesterday, Jake. Where do you live?"  
  
"I live in Rivendell," I say.  
  
She frowns. Aw, even her frown looks cute. "That sucks. I thought maybe you lived a little closer so we could hang out more often!"  
  
I frown too. Wow, to think I girl like THIS would want to spend any time with ME. And I wouldn't be able to hang with her. "I'm sorry," I say quietly. "Well, we can hang out all this week!"  
  
"Yea, I hope we can! I'll be here as often as I can...um, I have a question...there is this teen club a few blocks away called The Rokko. Can you come tomorrow? There's gonna be a party there. I know my friends would like to meet you."  
  
"Sure!" I say, trying not to burst with enthusiasm. "Just tell me where it is and when you'll be there and I'll go!"  
  
She gives me this cute toothy grin. "Awesome! Well, we'll talk about it later, but for now, let's catch some waves," she says and runs up the beach to get her surfboard.  
  
"Holy hell," I mutter to myself. "My life isn't shit anymore..." Seemed my whole life had always been bad luck. Now things were finally turning around!  
  
  
  
Emma's POV  
  
As I walked back up the beach towards my hotel, I thought about this whole Legolas situation. I remembered so many times we spent together and how right it felt to be with him for sooo long. Then BAM I hit something.  
  
"I am sooo sorry!" I say and pick up my lotion, purse, and magazines. "I didn't see..." I look up and pause. "Uh, did I just say I was sorry? Screw that! I'm NOT."  
  
Earfalas rolls his eyes at me and I walk right past him. But, of course, the annoying twerp he is, he follows me.  
  
"You don't have to be so cross. I mean, can't we put all that behind us now?" he says and starts tugging on my bathing suit strap. "Fuck off!" I yell and push his hands away, but he doesn't stop then. He just keeps on following me. "Let's forget everything that happened back at Gondor High School!"  
  
"That you probably would have raped me if Legolas didn't show up? How's your nose doing? Hmm, looks a little crooked to me...that's good."  
  
He sneers. "Yea, well you were always a bitch, weren't you?"  
  
"Hm, let me think about that," I say and behind my back I unsnap my sunscreen cap. "Well, yes, I guess you can say I am a bitch!" I pull my sunscreen out and start spraying him in the face. "Take that, bastard!" I say and walk away. Ha, I think I did pretty well for myself. I hate that guy.  
  
"Ugh, look what you did!" he yells.  
  
"I already looked and it was quite funny to me!" I say and jog out of his sight. 


	3. Club Fight

Club Fight  
  
Jake POV  
  
I had spent two days straight in the sun with Iliana and I was tanning, but my face and back were really red. I had spent Wednesday with her and I only left her to get ready so I could go to the party with her. I was so excited! I picked out my clothes that seemed very Belfalas-ish. I wore a dark blue Belfalasan [Hawaiian] shirt, black shorts, and my new black tennis shoes. I even put some muse in my hair and messed with it so it didn't look like it's flat self. And then I was ready to go.  
  
"EMMY!" I yelled.  
  
"Yea?" Emma said coming out of the bathroom, looking dolled up to go walking around town. "Drive me to the Rokko, this teen club, please?"  
  
"If dad knows your going there," she answers.  
  
"He knows. I asked him if I could go," I answer.  
  
"Hey, you're looking sharp...going to hang with that beach chick, eh?"  
  
"Iliana," I sigh.  
  
"Come on, let's go," she says.  
  
  
  
We drive up in Mom's red corvette ad the music is blasting out of the club. "Thank you, Emma!" I say. "Pick me up at twelve?"  
  
"Agh...yea, okay," she says. "See yah then."  
  
I smile to myself as I walk in. I pay and then walk around, looking for Iliana. There are lots of fine girls around, but not like Iliana, so I keep on searching.  
  
"Jake!" I whip around on my heel to see Iliana. "There you are!" she hugs me more a moment and then pulls back. "Aw, you look a little red, are you okay?"  
  
"Yea, sunburned," I frown. She isn't even burned at all, just nice and tan.  
  
"These are my friends, Pellen and Rinone," she says, looking over at the two girls behind her.  
  
"Hi!" says Pellen. She grabs my hand and shakes it. "It's so nice to meet you. We've heard lots of nice things about you."  
  
I look over at Iliana but she looks down, blushing a little. What could THAT mean? "It's nice to meet you to," I say to Pellen. "So, Iliana? Wanna dance?"  
  
She looks up and smiles. "Sure."  
  
It's a really slow song, so I can finally just put my arms around her. "I've had a lot of fun with you over these past says," I manage to say.  
  
"Me too, Jake. I know this sounds corny, but I'm dreading the day you have to leave."  
  
"It's not corny. I feel the exact same way," I say. We both hold each other closer. "A matter of fact, I think I want to be with you forever..." I whisper in her ear. Before I can mention "now THAT was corny," she pulls back so that we're looking at each other face to face, then gets closer to me and we kiss, right in the middle of the dance floor, in front of everyone. How could this girl like me? It seemed that neither of us wanted to tear away, so we made it long. I could never forget it...  
  
  
  
Emma's POV  
  
On my way into the hotel, I see Earfalas. I burst out laughing right when he looks at me, because he looks really tan, except his face is a lot whiter from where I'd squirted him. He probably didn't get it all off before he got into the sun.  
  
Then I notice he's holding hands with a girl.  
  
"Emthiel?!"  
  
I jump back in surprise. "Leanna?"  
  
"What the hell are you doing here? Isn't there anywhere where I can get away from you?"  
  
"I was about to say the same thing," I say, crossing my arms over my chest. "I'm here on a vacation."  
  
"I live in my beach house in the summer and Earfalas just came to visit me. Too bad you don't have any guy to hang with anymore, now that Legolas is gone and now that Darien is too upset with you to ask you back."  
  
"How do you know about Darien?" I snap suspiciously.  
  
"Everyone knows. Meliah has been telling everyone Darien, soon to be a music artist, dumped you! You get what you deserve."  
  
I grind my teeth. "Well, we're still really good friends. At least I have famous friends and relatives in big bands and Greenwings knows me by face! What famous person knows YOU? Robby the Roach Killer?"  
  
She growls at me. "Just because you know famous people, doesn't mean anything. Do you want to know what Rome really thinks of you? I overheard him say, 'Emma Goldring is the biggest ho.'"  
  
"Oh, that's why he's one of my best friends and tries to hang out with me s much as possible? We're really good friends and your little lies aren't gonna tear us apart!"  
  
"Like whatever! Earfalas and I like have a party to go to! Unlike YOU!" she storms off, pulling Earfalas behind her.  
  
What a fucking prep!  
  
  
  
Nobody's POV  
  
While Jake cuddled with Iliana in a corner of the club, he didn't notice the pairs of eyes closely watching him. Two best friends stood by each other muttering in disgust.  
  
"She dumped me to hang with this girl-face guy?" one muttered.  
  
"Dude, it's not that big of a deal. Just tell him to back off and he will."  
  
"He stole her from me! I bet he's not even a good surfer like we are. What does she see in that dork?" said the first boy, running his fingers through his short, blond hair. "I'm going to beat the shit out of him."  
  
"Don't, man, you'll get kicked out!"  
  
"Yea? And it's worth it."  
  
  
  
Jake's POV  
  
"Okay, so I have your address and I'll write you as soon as I get back," I say. Though I'm as nervous as if I were going to the dentist, I try to keep my cool. I put my arm around her shoulders and she smiles and looks up at me.  
  
"You'll be at the beach tomorrow, right?"  
  
"Yea, and then maybe we can go looking through the shops?"  
  
"That's be cool," she says softly.  
  
"Iliana...why do you like me?"  
  
"Why?" she says if it was so obvious. "Your smart, funny, sweet, cute...you make me laugh sometimes. I like that. Who wouldn't like you?"  
  
"Huh, a lot of kids," I say. "Everyone in school would pick on me because I was always pretty sad and alone. My step dad was insane and abusive, my mom didn't care, and so the kids would laugh that I was so different. I'm in a better family now...a REALLY awesome family, but either way, I think the same people are going to hate me."  
  
"Well, they are crazy if they hate you...I like you a lot..."  
  
"And I like you. You're the prettiest girl I think I've ever met."  
  
Before I could kiss her again, some dude bent over me and grabbed me by the shirt. He pulled me up and he looked about a head taller than me. He had blond spiky hair and a blue bandana wrapped around his head.  
  
"What do you want?" I say, trying to sound brave.  
  
"I WANT you to stay away from my girl!" he growls.  
  
"I'm not your girl anymore, Giles! I told you, it's over!" Iliana yells.  
  
Giles just stares at me angrily and grabs my shirt. "You're sunburned."  
  
"Think I don't fucking know that, punk?" I snap.  
  
"Ooh, tough guy? Bet you can't handle this!" He takes his free hand and jabs me in the stomach. My stomach is really hard so it doesn't bother me! "My turn!" I say quickly and hit him right in the eye.  
  
He pulls back and grabs his eye, but only for a moment. All the kids group around us, while Iliana screams "STOP IT, GILES! Leave him alone!"  
  
Giles grabs me again and lands his fist right on my neck. I start choking and grabbing my throat, but Giles, knees me right in the stomach when I didn't expect it. I start falling to the ground, my stomach burning, and Giles jumps on me. I can hear the workers trying to get to us to stop the fight.  
  
Then I see Iliana, her eyes wide with fear as I fall to the ground with a thud. "Jake!!!" she screams, trying to get in after me, but Giles blocks her.  
  
I look back at Iliana. I've got to show her that I'm not weak, just cause I'm little and skinny. I feel all this energy surge through my body. I tumbled forward so that I send Giles down. I clench my fist and start punching him in the face, the chest, and the stomach. That's when the workers got to me and yanked me up.  
  
"Get out of here! We don't need troublemakers around here!"  
  
"But he didn't start it! Giles did!" Iliana yelled.  
  
"No, she didn't see the beginning!" Giles said in defense. "He hit me first!"  
  
The manager grabs me by the shirt and leads me out. I turn back to see Iliana following me. "Iliana! Just stay here and enjoy the party!"  
  
"No, I don't want to! I only wanted to be with you here! I'm not going to hang around so that Giles can follow me around!"  
  
The manager throws me out the door so I fall on the sidewalk. "And don't come back here!" he yells. I shrug and get up off my scraped knees.  
  
Iliana comes out and we sit on the sidewalk. She cuddles up next to me and we just talk, listening the music pouring out of the club.  
  
"See, this isn't so bad after all!" she says.  
  
"Not bad at all," I say and kiss her, since a few minutes ago I had been rudely interrupted. She pulls away and then we just hold each other. "You were really brave. If only you could be here longer so every time Giles came near, you could just scare him away."  
  
"I wish I could too," I say. 


	4. Many Emotions

Many Emotions  
  
Emma POV  
  
The week had passed and it wouldn't be long before we had to go. I was almost finished packing my stuff and besides Leanna hanging around, I had had a good week! I got some clothes and got to hang out with my brothers. It wasn't often that I got to be around Edoran at all!  
  
Someone knocked on the door and Jake leapt up to get it. It was just dad. "I got locked out," he says and walks in. Jake sighs and sits back down.  
  
"Hoping Iliana will say goodbye?" he asks.  
  
"She said she would," he says quietly. "It's probably too late now."  
  
"It's time to go. Get your bags, everyone!" Dad says.  
  
Jake grabs his duffel, looking down at his feet, and we all leave the hotel room.  
  
We got in the car and Jake looked out the window as if deep in thought.  
  
"Good-bye, Belfalas!" Dad says as we drive from the hotel.  
  
  
  
Jake's POV  
  
I didn't understand it! She had promised to drop by to say bye! I looked out the window, wondering what had happened. Then I caught that blond flash in front of my eyes and I saw that Iliana was running on the sidewalk towards the hotel.  
  
"STOP THE CAR!!!" I yell.  
  
The car stops suddenly, it's tires screeching. I jump out and run after Iliana. "Iliana!!!" I yell. "Jake, don't take too long!" mom yells.  
  
She stops and turns around. "Jake! I'm so sorry I'm late! Couldn't get away..."  
  
"It's okay," I say. "I'm just glad I get to say goodbye to you now. I'll call you when I get home."  
  
"Yea, that'd be great. I hope I'll get to see you again some day..."  
  
"Me too. I'm sure one day we will...but for now, this is goodbye."  
  
She looks away, sadly. "This sucks."  
  
"I know," I say and hug her. "And I'm going to miss you, like you have no idea."  
  
She kisses me softly, then mom yells, "Time to go!"  
  
"Bye, Jake," she says quietly.  
  
"Bye," I say. After studying her face for a moment, I turn and head to the car. Damn, this really sucked.  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
When we finally got home, we were all very tired, but Jake seemed to have this burst of energy all of the sudden and he started muttering to himself about calling Iliana! We brought all of our luggage in, but I had two bags, so I had to take a second trip out to the car. As soon as I went outside to get my second bag, I saw Darien go inside his house.  
  
I wondered how he was doing, so I just jogged over. I knocked on the door and Aragorn answered. "EMMA!" he smiled. "Come in! How was your trip?"  
  
"It was fun. The beach was nice!" I say walking in. "What have you been up to?"  
  
"Oh, Arwen and I have been doing lots of things. We've gone to some parties and gone on some dates. We saw that new movie, 'Tomorrow'. It was really good."  
  
Darien walks by, looking down. He glances up just a little. "Hi," he says.  
  
I bite my lip for a moment. "What's wrong, Darien?"  
  
"So much," he says quietly. "My mom is diagnosed with skin cancer and it's really bad, plus my grandma just died and I got back from her funeral yesterday."  
  
"I'm so sorry, Darien," I say, trying not to sound so surprised. All he needs is me making a big deal about it.  
  
Aragorn nods. "Yea, it's not been a good week in some ways."  
  
"Yea, dude, but for you it's been fine! Like any other week!" Darien says to Aragorn and walks out. "Ugh, I fucking hate my life," he mutters.  
  
"He's been like this for a few days," Aragorn says, frowning. "I'm not sure what I can do. I tried to get him out, maybe to meet some girls, but he won't go anywhere except the grocery store for his mom. He keeps on making up these really depressing songs too."  
  
"I wish I could help," I say. "School is coming up soon, actually, so maybe as soon as he works, he'll get things off his mind."  
  
"Yea, life off his mind, and suicide on his mind as he sing his depressing songs over and over again," Aragorn says sadly. "He hasn't eaten much since his grandma died. And he still likes you, Emma. I know for a fact he wants to ask you out again, or he said so right before his grandma died. He knows you'll say no. But he knows you wont give him another chance."  
  
"I...I don't believe it. I don't think he likes me," I say.  
  
"You don't want to believe it, cause you accepted that you guys were over and lost all your hope to get back together with him," Aragorn corrects me.  
  
"God, stop knowing me so well!!" I snap.  
  
"Legolas arrived this morning. He's at Arwen's," Aragorn says, quickly changing the subject.  
  
"Oh really? He's probably called my house already. Well, just wanted to see how you guys were doing. See ya, Aragorn," I give him a quick hug. "Bye Darien!"  
  
He doesn't answer, so I walk out. Poor guy. He's been having things really rough for a while, I can tell.  
  
  
  
As soon as I get home, I dial Arwen's number. "What's up, Arwen?"  
  
"Emma! Hey, I was gonna call you and ask you to spend the night!"  
  
"Uh, sure! I just have to tell my parents and I'll be over in a moment," I say.  
  
"Okay, and guess who is over?"  
  
"Legolas," I answer.  
  
"Hey! Did Aragorn tell you?"  
  
"Yep," I say with a smile. "I am actually excited to talk to him. It's been weird between us lately, but I want to be friends like we were before."  
  
"Aww," Arwen says. "Well, hurry on over, he said almost the exact same thing!" 


	5. Arwen's house 1

Arwen's House 1  
  
Even before I can knock, Arwen swings the door open. "Hey!" she exclaims. I walk in and right then I see Legolas. Single Legolas.  
  
"Hey, Legolas," I say quietly.  
  
"Don't just 'hey Legolas' me! I want a hug from my old friend!" he says and holds his arms open for me. I smile and practically leap into his arms. He hugs me long and tight. I've missed him so much. When he came with Talim, it didn't feel like it was the Legolas I knew for some reason.  
  
"I've missed you," he says.  
  
"I've missed you too," I say as we pull away.  
  
Arwen looks on, trying to look like all of this isn't getting boring, but I can tell she wants to be like "Enough of this! Let's do something!"  
  
"So, why don't we watch a movie?" she asks. I knew she was going to say that. So we walk down the hall into Arwen's theater. Yea, her family has a theater. Her dad has been gradually letting her and her brothers get more electronic things and the three wanted a theater for Christmas two years back.  
  
"Tomorrow and Paper Heart are the only in theater movies I have right now," Arwen frowns. "I've seen both of them and they're both worth watching a second time.  
  
"Tomorrow," Legolas says. "The commercial is so sweeeeet."  
  
"Yea, I want to watch that too," I say.  
  
  
  
I look over at Arwen when we're about halfway through the movie and she's ASLEEP!! What's up with that? The movie has excitement every five seconds!  
  
Legolas turns to me. "Wanna talk and just pause the movie for awhile?"  
  
"Yea, sure," I say. We both walk up to this room with windows where you can pause the video. We paused it and just sat down on a couch in the room.  
  
"I feel like we both made a bad decision this summer...breaking up," Legolas says and then doesn't say anything for a minute. I really don't know WHAT to say because I'm not sure I agree.  
  
"I don't know if you remember, but I remember when we Aragorn and Talim went off to study a book report and we were all alone at the lunch tables. You were so cute and shy. I had started liking you so much so fast, because really, there's nothing to hate," he says slowly. "And I said, 'You're beautiful, Emthiel. If I were in Aragorn's place, your name would always be on my tongue...'"  
  
I smile remembering that. Legolas had always been really sweet and I'd never gone out with anyone as long as I had gone out with him. "Yea, and I remember when you took me out to this fancy restaurant and you gave me Cashdoggie. I was so happy. That was the best weekend ever."  
  
"And when everyone was making fun of me for being 'gay' and all that crap and you didn't hang any less around me, even if you were made fun of too for being with me."  
  
"And when I got kidnapped and you saved me. You were they every moment when I needed you," I say and smile. Wow, I really did miss Legolas being with me. Darien was great and all. I loved him to death, but Legolas was different. I was still in love with Legolas, I think! That was, I loved the old Legolas and was this Legolas still the same?  
  
He still seemed to care like he did whenever I needed him and those icy white blue eyes were also warm towards me.  
  
"I've never loved anyone like I love you, Emma. You know I'm not lying. You and me are too close to lie to each other."  
  
"I know you wouldn't lie to me Legolas," I say. "I love you too. I think we're perfect for each other."  
  
We shyly smile and look away, then face each other again, grinning like lovesick idiots. Why did we break up in the first place? I couldn't remember when I looked straight at him. How could someone like me ever want to smash a relationship with Legolas? A girl would be crazy to do something like that...  
  
"So, does this mean..." he stops, assuming I know what he means, and I do.  
  
"Yea," I say. We both lean into each other and kiss. His lips were so different from Darien's or Aragorn's. So much more silkier and he was a much better kisser. Not only that, but the boy I was kissing was better for me then any of the guys I'd met. I knew it, just by that feeling in my stomach.  
  
"Hiya bitches!" Arwen bursts in and Legolas and me tear quickly apart before Arwen sees. "Why'd you guys pause the movie?"  
  
"We didn't want to watch it without you," Legolas says.  
  
"Well, let's finish it!" Arwen exclaims. I get up to follow Arwen and Legolas follows. That's when I feel his hand sneak up around mine. I glance up into his clear crystal eyes and he smiles at me. Why was I such a dork with boys sometimes? How did I not see that Legolas and I were perfect?  
  
  
  
Suggestions? 


	6. Arwen's house 2

Arwen's House 2  
  
Legolas POV  
  
Arwen fell asleep again and Emma and I got to talk about tons of old memories. I felt like I didn't have one decent memory without her. How had I gotten along without her this summer? I wasn't sure.  
  
"So school is starting in two weeks," I say. "Leanna fights and all that stuff all over again!"  
  
"Yea...and Aragorn will be gone," Emma says quietly. "I wonder what it'll be like without him."  
  
I nod. "He's a great friend to all of us. I wish he didn't have to go," I say. "But at least we have each other...and our other friends."  
  
"Sorry I brought it up," Emma says.  
  
"It's okay," I say and stroke her face with my knuckles.  
  
"We'll make new friends, I guess," I say. "To change the subject, remember when we decided we would 'do it'."  
  
Emma looks up a little surprised. "Um...yea..."  
  
"I could kill Leanna for the cat litter..." I say.  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
Okay, now, where is he going with this? "Yea, she is annoying," I say quietly. Was he suggesting doing what I thought right now?  
  
"Um, yea, anyways," Legolas says and yawns. "I'm tired. I think I'll go to bed. Night."  
  
"Night," I say, feeling very confused.  
  
  
  
Eomer POV  
  
As soon as I woke up that morning I decided to call Talim. I had thought about it for too long and now it was time to call her.  
  
"Is Talim there?"  
  
"She sure is," her mom says.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Talim, what's up?"  
  
"Eomer? Hi! Just about to go out with a friend," she says.  
  
I gulp. "Legolas?"  
  
"Legolas?" she says. "What about him?"  
  
"Aren't you going out with him?"  
  
She pauses. "Yea, we've been going out, but..."  
  
"Oh, I just wondered," I cut her off. "It's...um, surprising."  
  
"Yea, surprising to everyone, I guess," she says. "Um, Eomer, did you call for a certain reason?"  
  
"Um, no," I say quietly. "Sorry for wasting your time."  
  
"But Eomer, you..." Click, I hang up. What was up with Talim? Why was she going out with LEGOLAS?! It didn't seem right at all and I had gone out with her for a year. Wow, I screwed things by breaking things up between us.  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
That morning I woke up in Arwen's millionth guest bed and Legolas was snuggled up against me. He must have snuck in this morning cause I could tell he was awake.  
  
I turn and smile at him. "Good morning, gorgeous."  
  
He grins the cute way he does and kisses me gently. "We have catching up to do."  
  
"Huh?" I say.  
  
"Is it wrong to want to kiss you over and over and makeup for lost time?"  
  
I laugh. "No, cause we're together again," I say and kiss him on the lips. He gets this wild, hungry look in his big blue eyes. He starts to passionately kiss my lips, then go make a trail of kisses down my neck and closer to my chest. He starts to unbutton my pajama shirt when Arwen knocks. "Emma, lets get breakfast!" she calls.  
  
I roll my eyes and button my shirt back up. "I promise, Legolas, we'll be able to continue this SOON," I whisper. Legolas manages to smile. "Arwen! I'll be there in like two minutes!" I yell after her.  
  
  
  
I leave Arwen's a little bummed that Legolas and I hadn't gotten to have some fun this morning, but Legolas and I have plans at my house tonight involving my window and a ladder.  
  
As soon as I get in the house I run to my room, throw my duffel bag, and leap onto my bed.  
  
  
  
Darien POV  
  
I wake up feeling groggy and dirty. Last night I had fallen asleep before I could get a shower. I looked in the mirror and scowled. My hair was full of tangles and my eyes had huge swollen circles from crying and very little sleep. What had happened to my life? I had thought that since I moved here, it was heaven, but everything had switched around. I had lost five pounds this week, which was a little scary, but I just had no desire to eat.  
  
I had to call Emma. She always knew how to make me feel better. She was just that kind of person.  
  
"Hello?" Emma sounded groggy.  
  
"Emma, I have something to say that's important and you may never talk to me again...can you come over?"  
  
"Um, sure...I'll be right over."  
  
She knocked on my door not even a minute later! She had gym pants on and the shirt she probably slept in, but she still looked beautiful. "Sit," I said and she sat down at my table. I sat across from her and neither of us said anything for a while.  
  
Finally she spoke. "What do you have to tell me?" she says softly.  
  
I clear my throat trying to think of something not dumb to say. Nothing smart or sweet seems to come to my mind. "Um, Emma, I'm in love with you," I say.  
  
She literally stops moving. I swear she even stopped breathing. She just stares for a moment, and then finally breathes again. "Em, I can't live without you! I'm going completely crazy! I'm losing weight and I can't sleep and most time I'm thinking of you. I'm sorry I was ever stupid and broke it off. I was faggish, but I need you back, please!"  
  
She says nothing still, making me feel nervous. She bites her lip and then starts bursting into tears. I walk over there and hug her and she hugs me back. I'm not sure what this means, but for some reason I'm afraid to know.  
  
"I'm going out with Legolas," she finally sniffles out.  
  
Now it is my turn to freak. I just stop, not knowing how to react at all. What? What was I going to do now? Die. That's what. My life was officially over!  
  
"I'm so sorry, Darien, I truly am, but what can I do? I thought we were over and I have feelings for Legolas now."  
  
I still just stared over her shoulder into the kitchen, my mind wandering. I could see her kissing him and enjoying it in my mind. This was hell. I just wanted to cry, but that would be a really dumb and embarrassing thing to do. I sat down on the floor, feeling as if my legs would collapse under me.  
  
"Don't be mad, Darien! Darien?"  
  
"Yea..." I say slowly. "I know it's not your fault, but whether it is or not, I hate everything. I hate my life, I hate the moles my mom has to get burned off from her skin from now on, I hate myself, I hate my house, I hate Legolas, and I want to die," I say slowly, my heart practically beating out of my chest.  
  
She frowns down at me from in her chair. "I'm sorry, Darien. I feel like you're one of my best friends. I don't want you to feel this way. Can we hug? We both need it."  
  
"You don't want to hug me. I feel gross."  
  
"I don't care. You're my friend, gross or not, and I love you."  
  
I really just want to cry. We both get up and hug really tight. "I'm sorry," she whispers in my ear.  
  
"Don't be," I say.  
  
After that she leaves. I fall on my couch, feeling so many mixed feelings at once. I hated my life. I needed to do something about it soon, because if I waited too long, it'd be hard to get out of this depressed stage. But all I wanted to do was lay and think about all the horrible things that had happened to me. So I didn't get up. And the bad feelings only got worse. 


	7. Shadow in the street

Shadow in the dark  
  
Darien POV  
  
"Child's face well painted  
  
Smile like warm summer  
  
Heart tattered and tainted  
  
Pain under a black cover  
  
Cries unheard and concealed  
  
Decisions decided  
  
Fresh sores so unhealed  
  
Agony abided"  
  
I looked at my song and then chewed on my pencil for a long time. I looked outside and it was really dark, though because of the streetlight I could see a tall figure walking on the street and he turned in to Emma's house. I stared carefully and the figure seemed to feel my eyes on him, cause he looked from one side to another. When he looked towards me I ducked under the window. As I hid out of his sight, I thought about that face which seemed too familiar. Then I remembered! LEGOLAS!  
  
I peeked through the window again and saw that he had looked away now. He set a ladder against Emma's window and I could see her lean out of the window and talk to him, this huge grin on her face. Sickening. Plain sickening!  
  
He smiles and talked back to her and then crawled up the ladder and into his room. The lights went off in her room and they shut the window. Why couldn't she at least live a little far away and not across the street so I wouldn't have to be reminded how I'd lost her! Why was everything going so wrong?  
  
"WHY?!" I mutter to myself. "Does God hate me?" With that I just curl up in my bed and try to sleep, though tons of thoughts were going through my head.  
  
  
  
No one's POV [Somewhere in Gondor, 3:00 am]  
  
"I don't know what's wrong with you Arleen!" Anwell Carver, in the drivers seat took a quick turn, which made his daughter's stomach turn. Her father continued "You have done nothing this whole summer except stay at our pool and come to the studio with me, even when I woke late! You've had no one over all summer and you haven't made an effort to be friends with the Loofers!"  
  
"Dad, the Loofers' kids are the most immature elves ever! Just because they are your boss's kids, doesn't mean I want to be friends with them!"  
  
Her dad scowled. "You need to make some sort of friends, not sit around and try to bother Lila Knolls." Lila was Arleen's favorite music artist and whenever she came to sing in bigphat studio, Arleen would try and talk to her a bit.  
  
"I don't think I bother her! She said I was really nice!" Arleen hissed. "Dad, I'm sorry no one likes me! What can I do about it?"  
  
"They're intimidated by you cause you're so beautiful," her dad said. "You have to get over being so shy with people and make an effort to talk to people."  
  
She shook her head. "All I know is that for some reason I was born really shy and because of it, no one wants to talk to me. Maybe because mom was like that way."  
  
"And mom had no friends, really," Dad pointed out.  
  
"Dad, I can't change it! No one seems to understand me. Maybe if I wasn't home schooled, I'd have other choices as friends then Jem Loofers!" Her dad tried to argue, but Arleen whispered, "I don't want to talk about my horrible friendless life. I just want you to try not to interfere."  
  
  
  
Emma's POV  
  
Legolas crept into my room and we snuggled together on my bed. I took in everything about him: his soft lips, his big icy eyes, and soft skin.  
  
"Shall we continue where we left off?" he asks with a grin, leaning over me.  
  
I nod. "Yea, but lets take it slow...you know you're my first."  
  
"And you're mine," he says. He starts to unbutton my pajama shirt slowly from top to bottom. He gradually pulls it away from me while kissing down from my chest to my stomach.  
  
Between kisses he whispers, "You're...perfect."  
  
I take his shirt off really quickly. "What happened to slowly?" he asks.  
  
"Screw slow," I say. "I want to see you naked."  
  
He laughs and helps me take off his shirt. It's obvious he's worked out a lot extra this summer, because his stomach his harder and more muscular than ever. I shiver by just looking at his chest and that's not even the best part!  
  
He starts pulling down my pajama pants and I pull down his jeans and boxers. Screw every guy in the world; Legolas had the body of a perfect sex god! He looked at me down to up, till finally he looked at me straight in the eyes. "Wow, you're so beautiful."  
  
"And so are you," I answer.  
  
"Now, I'm sure I want to do this, but just making sure cause I really don't want to pressure you into anything..."  
  
"Oh, trust me, I've wanted this for a long time from you."  
  
He grins and nods, reminding me of a cute surfer dude, "All right!" I spread my legs and he lays right on top of me. He thrusts himself into me slowly and carefully. I try not to giggle like an idiot or scream, but I really feel like doing both. I can't believe he's never done this before, because he's gentle with me, but making it feel really good at the same time. Once he'd fully got his huge, ahem, dick in me, we start moving in unison.  
  
"I love you, Em," he says slowly. "And not just now, I always have."  
  
  
  
The second I wakeup, I freak. "Legolas, you have to go! The sun is rising and you must go back tote palace!" I say, pushing his arm off of my chest.  
  
Legolas jumps up and crawls out of the bed naked. He really quickly gets his clothes on and his shirt is buttoned wrong, but he just hurries down the ladder anyways. "Arwen, Aragorn, and me are going to the fair tonight! Will you come?"  
  
"Yea! I didn't plan on even going this year, but I'll go with you!"  
  
He smiles. "All right, I'll call you later! See you tonight!" He puts the ladder back in the garage and then takes off.  
  
  
  
Darien POV  
  
The phone rang and I answered it. "Hello?"  
  
"Hello, is this Darien?" said a male voice.  
  
"Yes, it is."  
  
"This is Anwell Carver from the bigphat studio over in Gondor. Um, we need you to start a little sooner, if it's convenient. I've just recently seen the tape of you in the studio few weeks ago and I'm sorry I missed meeting you! I'd like you to start sooner than two weeks, if that is okay..."  
  
I really had nothing left here that I wanted or would miss. I wanted to leave Rivendell as soon as possible plus my mother said she was fine and that I could leave and follow my dream when I wanted. "I will come as soon as you want me," I finally say. "When do you need me?"  
  
"A week from today. I would like to meet you at the studio at seven o' clock," he says.  
  
"At night?" I ask hopefully.  
  
"Nope, in the morning," he says.  
  
I bite my lip for a moment. "All right, I'll be there. Thank you, sir."  
  
"Please, call me Anwell. See you soon, Darien. Bye."  
  
"Bye," I answer and hang up. Well at least I was finally going, though I would have lots of packing to do. My aunt Luce lived about half and hour away from the studio and I already had plans to stay with her. I just hoped she wouldn't mind me coming early.  
  
I then paused. How was I gonna tell Emma I was leaving? I then remembered Legolas sneaking in her room last night. Yea, she probably wouldn't care very much. Sure, she'd miss me, I guess, but it wasn't like she was gonna lose any sleep over me.  
  
That's it! I was going.  
  
  
  
I know, the sex scene totally sucked and I'm sorry. I haven't done a sex scene in a fic for like a year! Lol. Sorry again... 


	8. Doorbell Nightmares

Doorbell Nightmares  
  
Darien POV  
  
A few days passed and Emma and Legolas spent every day together. I guess I didn't mind it so much, except that Emma hadn't come over once since I asked her out again. She didn't call or just take the time to walk across the street to say hi. Didn't she think I was at least leaving in two weeks? Well, I was going to leave in three days and I wasn't going to say goodbye. What was the point?  
  
I remembered saying "Girls are heartbreakers...nah, they're the devil," with my friends a long time ago, but I never really believed it...till now, of course. Screw her, screw Legolas, screw everyone! I hoped they would feel sorry if I actually became famous, but I wouldn't talk to them again.  
  
Maybe I'd talk to Aragorn. He'd spent a lot of time talking with me and he made sure I knew he cared, but everyone else, they'd just have to live without me. And they would be fine, cause the already made it clear that they didn't care.  
  
"A nice hot shower might make me feel better," I muttered to myself, running my hand through my long blond hair.  
  
  
  
Emma's POV  
  
Legolas and I had spent tons of time together and it was great. Arwen and Aragorn had hung around a bit too, but I hadn't seen Darien since I came over a few days ago. I hadn't seen him go out at all, except once when he went to the store for his mom while she was at work, I guess.  
  
I was spending my Wednesday alone, so I called him. It rang and rang. Unfortunately he didn't have an answering machine so I decided I'd just walk to his house. His car was there.  
  
"Iliana, I'll call you later," Jake says, standing in the hall. "Bye." He runs up before I can get out the door. "Sup? Where you going?"  
  
"Across the street to talk to Darien," I shrug. "Wanna come?"  
  
Jake doesn't say anything, but follows me out, so I assume that means yes. When we get to Darien's we knock a few times, but no one answers. "He must have gone on a walk," I say. "I hope he's doing okay. I miss being able to hang around with him."  
  
Jake nods. "Well, what do you wanna do?"  
  
"Why don't we go out to lunch at the mall? We have nothing better to do."  
  
"Damn straight!" Jake exclaims. "I love the mall! Let's go." He starts jogging out of the driveway and down the block and I run after him. "Boy, are you crazy! You're not supposed to like the mall!" I laugh.  
  
  
  
Darien POV  
  
I look out the window, holding a towel at my waist. I see Emma running after a boy, but I can't tell who it is cause he runs out of view, but I see a flash of blond hair in the sun, so I guess it could only be Legolas.  
  
What is she trying to do? Torture me by running around with him in front of my house. I knocked a book off the piano with my fist and growled to myself. So much for a relaxing shower! If only I could get out of this place sooner.  
  
"Get away from that window, boy, in your towel!" Mom says, opening the fridge and glancing at me. I walk away and go towards my room. "Sorry mom, and I'll pick up the book mess."  
  
"I'm not worried about the book, Darien," mom says, her forehead wrinkling with worry. "I'm worried about you and how you are doing emotionally. I don't want to have to leave for Gondor."  
  
"Mom, don't worry, I'll have plenty to do in the studio. I'll get better."  
  
"Darien, you're going to be going to school in Gondor too. You need to finish school, even if it's hard. I don't want a stupid son. I want you to be smart and get better again, just like a normal person. You need to make some new friends in school."  
  
"SCHOOL?" I say. "I don't need school! I have a career right in front of me and you want me to finish school!"  
  
"The school knows you won't be there half the time, but it doesn't matter. That's the one thing I ask of you, Darien. It'd make me feel a lot better. You're seventeen and still under my care and I say, you have to go."  
  
I growled and went into my room to put on my clothes. Now I was never going to get away from Legolas and Emma! And what if I made no friends? What if my career turned out to be nothing? What if I went nowhere? It was my dream!  
  
  
  
I laid on my bed and started yelling and screaming at everyone I was mad at. My voice finally died and the next thing I knew the doorbell rang. I wiped my eyes and got up. I'm sure I looked like a monster.  
  
I opened the door and there was Aragorn with Arwen. They were holding hands and being all mushy.  
  
"You locked the door," Aragorn says finally and walks in. He sits down with Arwen and they watch a movie, every few minutes stopping to say something goofy and to kiss each other.  
  
God, how sick! Was everyone out to torture me with 'you are single and everyone is not and very happy. Mwa ha ha!'? It felt like it!  
  
Then the doorbell rang again and it was Emma. I was almost happy till I saw that Legolas was right behind her. "Aragorn! Arwen!" Emma walks right past me as if I was just the butler and Legolas does the same. They all sit together on a couch while I just watch them as if invisible.  
  
"What is everyone doing in my house?" I finally ask.  
  
Surprisingly they stop to look at me. "What's wrong with it?" Aragorn asks. "I live here and these are my friends. Go write one of your dumb songs or cry or whatever you do when you're alone. I'll see you later." Aragorn points so my room as if telling me to go there.  
  
I glare at him. What is going on?  
  
  
  
I jump up off my bed. I take into my surroundings and sigh. Oh, at least it was just a dream! I'd probably fallen asleep when I had been yelling on my bed like a maniac. The doorbell rings, but I decide not to answer it. It rings again and my mom answers it.  
  
"Darien, why didn't you answer the door for Aragorn?" I come out and there is just Aragorn and my mom, no Arwen, Legolas, or Emma. "Sorry, I was asleep."  
  
I went back to my room. It had started raining sometime while I was asleep. If only I could leave for Gondor today...and maybe Emma and I would have completely different schedules!  
  
I actually smiled at the thoughts. As long as I didn't have to be near her and Legolas, I would be happy. I couldn't get over her...  
  
  
  
dun, dun, dun......till next chapter. :) 


	9. Dissed kinda short

Dissed [kinda short]  
  
Emma POV  
  
Friday evening Legolas and Arwen were busy at a private party, so Aragorn and me just sat bored on my front porch with Cashdoggie.  
  
"Too bad this summer is almost over," I say.  
  
"Yea and too bad Darien is leaving tomorrow. I'm gonna miss him."  
  
I turn to Aragorn. "Darien is leaving tomorrow?"  
  
"Yea, for Gondor. He'll be at the school every once in awhile, but he wants to go to get away from here. He wanted to go as soon as he could. Didn't you know?"  
  
"No!" I exclaim. I haven't been able to get a hold of him.  
  
"I don't see why he wouldn't call you," Aragorn shrugs.  
  
"I want to say bye before he leaves," I say. "Even if he doesn't care whether I do or not...I want him to know I am going to miss him."  
  
"I think he'll appreciate it. You could say bye right now if he didn't go shopping for some last minute things tonight."  
  
"Yea...so what time is he leaving?"  
  
"Eleven in the morning, so you could probably come by at ten fifteen," Aragorn says.  
  
  
  
Darien POV  
  
That morning I woke up at six. I finished packing and loaded up the trunk of my car. I had nothing else to do except leave, so I said bye to Aragorn and my mom, then left. As I drived towards Gondor, I felt a weight lifting off my shoulders. Yea, Emma would be in the same city, but we wouldn't live across the street from each other and I'd be too busy to notice her and her stuck up-looking boyfriend. And maybe if I were lucky, I'd make some new friends!  
  
I started to feel a lot happier within those few hours. I just hoped the feeling wouldn't pass. I turned up my music and tried kind of rocking out at the same time. "Oh yea!" I say. "This is the life!"  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
I hurried out of my house at ten thirty and ran over to Darien's. Aragorn answered the door. "He left already, Emma. He woke me up and was like 'see ya hopefully soon' and then left!"  
  
"Damnit!" I say, slapping my forehead. "I don't know why he left without saying goodbye. That seems so unlike him!"  
  
"Yea, it is. Maybe he's mad about something...you know how he's been lately."  
  
"Yea, well maybe I can see him when he's in Gondor. I hope we're still friends."  
  
  
  
Darien POV  
  
The next morning I woke up really early so I could meet this big shot "Anwell Carver" at the bigphat studio. When I drove to the studio, the security let me in and pointed me towards Mr. Anwell's room.  
  
I knocked. "Come in!" someone yelled. I came in to see a man about forty- five with shoulder length fluffy brown hair. "Darien, how nice to finally meet you!" He held his hand out to shake and I shook it.  
  
"And this is my daughter, Arleen," he said. I looked past him to see a girl, probably seventeen, with long brown hair to the middle of her back. She smiled and waved shyly.  
  
"Hi," she said. "I've heard you're great!"  
  
I smiled. "Well, I'm all right...I've had a lot of practice."  
  
"All right? Boy, you are spectacular. Now, for the add we put in the paper...we have lots of good drummers and bassists to play with you in your band..."  
  
"Wait, hold up...did you say BAND?"  
  
"Yes, you weren't aware that you were going to be in a band?"  
  
"No, I thought I was going to be my own music artist with maybe a few people playing drums and stuff for me, but I didn't agree to a band..."  
  
"Well, just try it out," Anwell said. "It could be a great learning experience. We're looking for a great singer and guitarist like you to be in a BAND. You can't take ALL the credit for people playing for you. A band is good."  
  
I wasn't really sure what to think about this. With a band I wouldn't be allowed to make some decisions by myself. It would be a lot harder, but I guess I had no other choice. I shrugged. "All right, I'll try it out."  
  
"Good, well the tryouts are in two days...you, Arleen, and another girl, Jem Loofers, are going to pick a drummer and a bassist."  
  
"Jem is going to help?" Arleen moans. "Are you serious?"  
  
"Her father wants it that way and he is my boss, so what can I say? No? There is nothing wrong with her anyways. Well, I hope you three can get along and agree on two great musicians."  
  
I didn't know what to say about all this! I was going to have two GIRLS helping me pick which band mates were going to be mine...and I didn't even WANT band mates!  
  
"I just want one thing," I say firmly. "That I can sing my own stuff. I'm not going to sing anything poppy and stupid that means nothing to me."  
  
"You have the liberty of singing your own stuff. We agreed to that," he says. "You're probably going to be able to do all of your stuff, pick music style, everything, but you must give your band mates a chance to try things too."  
  
"I can tell your worried, Darien," Arleen says. "But don't worry. There are lots of great, young musicians coming to tryout. You'll clique with a few."  
  
"Don't bother, Darien!" Anwell said. "Go and help Tina!"  
  
"No, Mr. Anwell, she's not bothering me," I say.  
  
"Either way, she needs to help Tina while I talk to you, Darien. Go, Arleen!" Arleen rolls her eyes and walks out.  
  
  
  
COMMENT!! 


	10. Change of Mind

I wrote a long chapter cause I have to go to Mexico for about 11 days, so I might not be able to write till the 4th of July. I probably will be able to give you one more chapter besides this one though, before I go.  
  
Change of Mind  
  
EMMA POV  
  
As usual, I left for school a few days early, since I needed to get settled in, so I started packing me stuff. Jake started packing his stuff too for his freshman year. "I'm so excited!" he exclaimed, throwing bunches of clothes in his suitcase. "This is going to be so cool!"  
  
"Why?" I ask. I don't see why he would want to go to school. It's not like Iliana was coming or anything. He'd just be away from the folks in a crowded apartment complex-like place!  
  
"I'm not so sure. I'm gonna miss Mom and Dad so badly, but maybe this will be an exciting experience!"  
  
"Just be aware that the Freshies always have counselors constantly breathing down their necks. You can't go anywhere off the school grounds without letting them know."  
  
"Oh, that'll suck," he says. "But at least we can explore a new city and I'll be with my new sister!" he smiles and looks at me. I smile back and screw up his hair, which he quickly tries to put back in place.  
  
"I gotta finish packing," I say. "We have to bring everything we'll need and we only have until tomorrow to do it!"  
  
  
  
Darien POV  
  
I sat down at a small table with Arleen at my right and some girl named Jem at my left. Arleen was really pretty. She wore different clothes than people in Rohan wore. She wore mostly flared jeans with tight black shirts with band logos on them and she had black tennis shoes that kinda looked like shoes I might wear! Even though her clothes were average and kinda plain and she hardly ever smiled, she was beautiful. She had these bright blue eyes and long soft-looking brown hair. She seemed to always be really deep in thought, almost completely out of it a lot of the time.  
  
Ha, I looked pretty bad, I guessed. My hair was in this screwed up ponytail [yep, it's shoulder length] and a lot of it is just all over the place. I'm wearing a Belfalasan [our Hawaiian] shirt, tan chords, and flip-flops.  
  
Then there was Jem. Um, wow. She was wearing really expensive, stylish clothes and she seemed to have a good body, but her face just looked kinda fat...it just didn't look right. Her makeup was done well, probably professionally, and her hair was frizzy and red.  
  
Despite how unattractive she was, she seemed to be stuck up and to think she was drop dead gorgeous. She had actually talked a few times, but it had only been about one of her loose fake nails and her shoe starting to fall off...okay?  
  
"You should probably take your hair down," Arleen says. "No offense, but it makes you look like you slept like it like that."  
  
I try not to look too embarrassed and pull the ponytail holder out. I won't mention that I HAD slept with it in. I wonder why I've just hardly cared what I look like anymore. Well, I can't have Emma so who would I look good for anyways? "Much better!" Arleen says.  
  
I glance at her and smile shyly. I'm usually not so shy, what's wrong with me? I haven't really talked to many people besides the grocery store workers in a month so I must just be used to that.  
  
"Okay, so one by one, people are going to come in. You'll be able to play a little guitar up on that stool over there and the person will get a chance to listen to you, then try to play with you. You'll have a piece of paper to write which ones you like and we can call them after the audition is over..."  
  
"Oh, please, Arleen!" Jem snaps. "You don't have to bore Darien with all your rambling. He can handle it."  
  
I roll my eyes at Jem, and then lean over into Arleen. "Thank you. I did need you to tell me that."  
  
She smiles a little. "Your welcome."  
  
I sit over at the stool and grab my guitar. One by one, people start to come in. First there is a guy, probably about thirty that comes to play the bass. I play the hardest song I can think of and start to play around with my guitar, but the bassist has trouble keeping up with me, plus his style is so much different than mine.  
  
I give Arleen the "He's killing me" look. "Um, thank you, Jon, we will call you as soon as we can and give you an answer."  
  
He nods sadly, seeing that he wasn't liked very much. Then we moved onto the next person. The next person that came in was a guy about twenty-five, I'm assuming, with just about every inch of his body was covered in tattoos! In his forehead there were these eyes and fangs...it was pretty scary. Even when he blinked, I saw tattoos on his eyelids! He played the drums pretty good, but he talked with a lisp and spit all over when he talked. He just didn't seem like the kind of person I needed in my band. Why couldn't I just be my own music artist?  
  
"I been in lick ten bends man," he spats. I'm guessing that means 'I've been in like ten bands'?  
  
"Um, thank you, um...Crudhead, was it? We'll give you a call with our decision," Arleen says, trying her best not to scowl. The guy finally leaves. Jem sighs and leans back. "We'll never find anyone."  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
"You guys packed?" mom asks.  
  
"Yep," I say.  
  
"I'm...packed," Jake says, bouncing on his suitcase and trying to zip it.  
  
"Good, cause I though if you guys were packed we could go out to Gazini's for the afternoon!"  
  
"Gazini's?!" Jake practically screams. "That's just the coolest place ever!"  
  
"It's fun," I shrug.  
  
"Just fun? No, it's gotta be the best place ever! Loads of fun! It has the biggest skate park in Rivendell and the best virtual video games that cost like tons and tons of money! Have you seen the commercial?!"  
  
Mom laughs. "All right, then get in the car! I won't be able to spoil you both for a while, so lets go!"  
  
We get in the car and start driving for awhile. "And they also have these huge slides that when you ride down them, your hair starts doing funky things cause of static electricity or whatever! And they have this really cool ride where this huge dragon attacks you and it's so cool! And there is this ride where..."  
  
Jake went on and on about what he knew about Gazini's. I guess I couldn't blame him. The best thing he had ever got to do growing up was going to Chucky Cheeses before his mom and dad divorced.  
  
"And like, there is this restaurant and they have Angus burgers, Gondor style! And..."  
  
"He got into the soda cabinet again, didn't he?" mom asks as Jake keeps on going.  
  
I nod. "Yep. Found him in the bathroom with five empty cans. He tried to hide them..."  
  
"Yea, thought so," mom says. "We need to put a lock on that cabinet."  
  
  
  
Darien POV  
  
When we had gone through about thirty people and five hours had passed, we started to get extremely tired. Then TWO guys originally from Gondor came in, both pretty normal looking. They both had brown shoulder length hair, about my length; one with curlier, wavier than mine and then there was one with totally straight hair.  
  
"We are trying out together," explained the curlier haired one, "Because we've been playing together since we were eleven and we met at the same Music school. We've been in only one band for a year when we were a lot younger, but the guitarist moved. We've been going to music school since we were eleven and we play together a lot, so we decided to try out together. I'm Connor."  
  
"And I'm Blake," says the straight haired one. "I will be playing the drums and Connor will be playing the bass."  
  
I found myself smiling. Wow, these guys were actually cool! They seemed to be a lot like me and they weren't bizarre psychos. I just hoped they played my taste.  
  
I started out my favorite song I'd written so far called Love Lacked and Lost. It was a medium speed song, but actually pretty hard because of all the crazy twists I had in the song.  
  
Connor the bassist looked carefully at what I was doing, then started adding his own stuff. It sounded really good! It wasn't exactly how I'd planned it to sound, but it was great! Then Blake, the drummer started doing his thing and it sounded amazing.  
  
Considering I'd spent most of my day playing with all these weird music artists with weird styles, things had turned out really good. I couldn't help but beam as I heard my song being played so professionally and almost studio-worthy. And this was just the audition!  
  
I played the whole song, and then when we were done I smiled at them. Arleen clapped, but Jem shrugged. "I must say, you guys are just what I want in a band," I say. "We haven't found anyone before you even slightly my style, but we all seem to play great together. This works. I'll call you guys up real soon and we can talk about it. What do you think, Arleen?"  
  
"You all are so talented! It's like you've been playing together forever and I know good music when I hear it. Plus I got to hear Darien sing a little bit yesterday when I watched his tape and let me assure you boys, you have an amazing vocalist and song writer as well."  
  
Conner laughed. "Wow, this seems to good to be true."  
  
"I guess no one cares what I think," Jem says crossly. "But I'm authorized to give my opinion, huh?"  
  
No one said anything in reply. I have a feeling she's gonna say how much she hates it and her father OWNS bigphat records. I now actually felt good about having a BAND and she was probably gonna smash all that and make the tryouts go again and again till she found something SHE liked.  
  
"Well, I don't really like..." she looked at me irately and I gave her a hopeful smile.  
  
"Uh...she paused, staring at me, her frown ceasing. "I mean, um, I love it! You guys are like SO awesome!" Even though she seemed to be lying for some reason, I felt relieved. Whatever had made her want to lie I didn't care! She agreed! That's all that mattered. Maybe she just felt like being nice.  
  
"All right, man!" Blake says and slaps Connor's hand. Then they look at me. "Since you are our possibly new band mate, which plays awesome I will add, you get a high five too." I smile, finally feeling most of my worries leave me as I slap hands with both of them and laugh.  
  
Arleen looks on and smiles and I look over at her, smiling as well. "Glad this is all working out!" she says.  
  
"Me too," the three of us boys say together, then start laughing. I feel such a connection with these people; it's amazing. I just hope all this doesn't just fall away from me like what happened in Rivendell.  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
We let Jake do some skateboarding first, to wear off some of that energy. He starts tearing up the skate park, doing all this crazy handstands with his skateboard I never knew he could do!  
  
"Who hoo! Whee!" He shouts just about every ten seconds. A lot of people just stop skating to watch him go back and forth on the half pipe, doing handspring kinda things...I don't know, skateboard stuff that I know nothing about. I know that it's amazing though!  
  
"Whee hee! I am HYYYYPER!" he shouts. Whoa, that boy certainly had enough soda.  
  
"Watch this, Emma!" he says and tries to skate really fast over to one side of the half pipe. He gets to the very top, but is still going too fast and he tries to stop, but hits this wall to stop skaters from totally falling off on the very top. I though he'd be okay, but then he fell back and did a few summersaults down to the middle of the half-pipe.  
  
"JAKE!" my mom and me scream at the exact same time. We rush over to him and he smiles.  
  
"Guess what?" he says smiling, though his eyes are like half lidded as if he were starting to pass out. "One, I have a helmet on. Two, I'm still HYPER!"  
  
My mom and me laugh with relief and help him up. "Oh, Jake we though you were really hurt..." I start saying.  
  
"AHHH!!!" he yells and falls flat on his back. "My arm, my arm, my arm, my arm, my ARM!!!!"  
  
"Jake?!" mom starts panicking and hovering over him. "I can't move it, but it hurts!" he takes his right hand and points to his left wrist. It does look a little purple now that I look at it.  
  
"I'll go call an ambulance!" I say running towards a payphone. Just before I am out of earshot, I hear my mom frantically say, "Your wrist is broken!" and I hear Jake's loud whines. Oh god, why does this have to happen right before we have to leave for Gondor?!  
  
.  
  
REVIEW!! Please, please! PLEASE!!! 


	11. School Again

Disclaimer: Darien, Blake, and Connor are my characters, though they were inspired by the band silverchair.  
  
This is what I picture Darien and his band looking like [this is the band silverchair which inspired me to put Darien in here in the first place though Darien is not his real name]. Copy and paste the links to the pictures to see em. This is Silverchair when they were young and had long hair. Lol.  
  
From right to left: "Darien", "Blake", and "Connor".  
  
gstomp_promo_2.jpg  
  
From right to left: "Connor", "Darien", "Blake".  
  
ey2.jpg  
  
Okay, I just wanted to show you those so you could see what they looked like...cause I could and I think they are adorable. K, on w/ the fic!  
  
School Again  
  
[I've had lots of other ppl lately, but don't worry, there's gonna be a lot of focusing on Emma again.]  
  
Emma POV  
  
We walked out of the hospital, Jake right next to me with his left hand all bandaged up.  
  
"Well, I'm left handed...so I guess I'll just go to school without any work!"  
  
"No, I don't think so!" mom said. "You'll figure out a way! Even if you have to use your mouth! Besides, I think you can handle it without bending your wrist."  
  
"Aww, man," Jake grumbles.  
  
  
  
The next day we're actually on schedule, despite Jake's little accident. I put Jakes bags in the car. "How is it that you seem to be a walking disaster and we always have to take care of you?"  
  
"Well, before it was my great looks that made the guys jealous...so they had to beat me up," smirks Jake. "This time, it was because every amazing skater has to have an amazing fall."  
  
I roll my eyes and try not to laugh. "You have a way with words, don't you?"  
  
"And I got it from my big sister!" he says and winks.  
  
I smile. "Oh yea, my witty genes MUST be rubbing off on you," I say with a hint or sarcasm.  
  
"Yes!" he exclaims. "You are the woman of witty words!"  
  
"And that she is," mom says, suddenly appearing. She puts the last bag in and then I meet her face to face. "Oh, do we have to do this all over again?" she whines.  
  
I hug her. "Yes, but I'll call you all the time just like before."  
  
Then she looks at Jake. It's funny. My mom is smaller than me so her and Jake are eye-to-eye. "My new big son...already off to school. You do what Emma says and don't cause any trouble. She's like your mom for a while, okay? Don't forget to call me."  
  
I don't think she expected a hug, but he gave her one anyways. Mom smiled real bright.  
  
"All right, kids, come back to visit as soon as you get the chance!" she says.  
  
We jump in the car and head to Gondor. Jake waves till she's out of sight. "Well, the good thing is I have a decent car to drive around this year so I don't have to hitch rides from my friends...and I have you!" I rub my hand through Jake's sandy blond hair. "Now, you be good!"  
  
"I will, I will," he sighs.  
  
  
  
Darien POV  
  
"Child's face well painted, Smile like warm summer, Heart tattered and tainted, Pain under a black cover,  
  
Cries unheard and concealed. Decisions decided. Fresh sores so unhealed. Agony abided.  
  
In the shadow of a tombstone, You'll hear her soft whispers, "Come back, I'm all alone" Muffled sounds like whimpers," Blake reads. I always feel a little weird when people read my lyrics cause even though some of them have hidden meaning, they really are deep and mean a lot about me. And just because some don't make much sense to most people, I'm afraid they wont like them.  
  
"I love it!" Connor says, looking over Blake's shoulder. "It's really deep and meaningful. I like those kind of songs, but I think we should have a few happy or angry songs, but still deep, you know? So we're not just the hard-core sad band...ya know?"  
  
"Yea, I agree," Blake says. "We need to have variety."  
  
"Um, I guess I can think up of some more songs, but we'll have to finish the sad ones first, cause that's all I have," I say.  
  
"Great, we'll do a lot of practicing on the ones we have for now until we get some more going!" Blake says.  
  
"Okay, well we need a band name," Connor says.  
  
I never though about that! I've always just dreamed of it being "Darien Jothes."  
  
"How about Stereo phat?" Blake asks.  
  
"Dude, that's gay," Connor says. "Why don't we call us the 'pink phat barbies' while we're at picking ridiculous names!"  
  
"Or we could call ourselves 'the ugliest phat threesome'," I joke.  
  
Blake looks a little mad while we make fun of his name, but he finally gets into the joking and says his own even more ridiculous names.  
  
After a long time, we get nowhere with a name. "How about we pick two random words?" I ask.  
  
"Uh..." Blake looks around. "Radio?"  
  
"Chic!" Connor says in a high-pitched voice and makes a model pose. I know he's joking, but I take it anyways. "Radiochic?" I ask.  
  
"I guess it's okay," Blake nods. "Better than the ugly threesome or whatever you faggots said."  
  
"I like it," Connor says. "I doubt anyone's taken THAT name."  
  
"Settled!" I exclaim. "Now, let's go get something to eat."  
  
  
  
Arleen POV  
  
As I walk by and glance at the three boys laughing and talking together. They really are a meant to be friends... which just reminded me how friendless I was. I frowned and walked away into the nearest room. Why was I so alone? I wasn't a bad or mean person, it was just that I was home schooled ad didn't even KNOW many kids my age. It wasn't fair. Why wouldn't dad let me go to school? Probably cause he had been home schooled...  
  
I could hear Darien laugh where I sat. I just wanted to be liked by someone! A few girlfriends would be nice and a boyfriend would also be cool...but I didn't have any of that. I wanted to breakdown and cry again, as I had been doing every night for the past week at least. But I held it all in this time...I was in the studio and didn't want to be seen running out, crying.  
  
I scurried around for my purse, which had my razors in it. I didn't know why I had gotten into cutting myself, but it just seemed to release my hurt, or something. I didn't really know; I just did it.  
  
I looked under my father's desk and found my purse. Before I could get a razor out, someone knocked on the door. "Who is it?" I asked, my voice shaky for some reason.  
  
"It's Darien. Us three guys wanted to know if you wanted to go to the Taco Shell with us!"  
  
I put my purse around my shoulder and hopped up. I smiled to myself and then opened the door. "You guys want ME to come?" I asked, unsure of all this.  
  
"No, we were just kidding," Blake says and acts like he's gonna leave, then stops and winks at me.  
  
"Of course we want you to come!" Darien says.  
  
I look up at him and see his bright smile. He's so cute when he smiles like that...it gives me the chills.  
  
"All right..." I say slowly. "I'll go."  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
I'd requested Talim as my roommate, but they don't always give you who you pick. "I just arrived," I say to the lady at the counter. "I need slips for Emma and Jake Goldring."  
  
"Ooh, the Goldring's. Here's your slips," she hands me and Jake a few papers with our schedules and random info pages.  
  
"YES!" I exclaim. "Talim is my room mate!"  
  
"And I got Lance Goldleaf...weird, his last name sounds like mine..."  
  
"You got WHO?" I say and grab his paper. "Uh oh," I say. "I think that might be Leanna's brother!"  
  
Jake gasps. "You mean that really evil girl?"  
  
"Yea, she's evil...hopefully he won't be so bad."  
  
"Hope not!" he says.  
  
  
  
*First day of school*  
  
Jake POV  
  
So, Lance hadn't showed up yet, so I never got to meet HIM, but I will tonight. When I come into my first class, I'm a little late. "Jake Goldring, I'm guessing? You're tardy, young man!"  
  
"Sorry Mrs. Hote," I say, sitting at a seat in the back. "Oh my god, Jake?!" I hear from a few seats away.  
  
My elf ears perk up suddenly and I look over to where I heard someone yell for me. I clap my hand over my open mouth and just stare. I could recognize that silky blond hair and cute little face in a crowd of pretty blonds...she was different from everyone...and not just that, SHE WAS IN MY CLASS!!  
  
"Iliana!" I cry. "I thought you couldn't come to this school!"  
  
"Well, I couldn't, till my parents decided..."  
  
"This is not talk-time!" Mrs. Hote slapped a book on her desk. "This conversation can wait till Lunch time!"  
  
Mrs. Hote turns to her board and when she does, I whisper to Iliana. "I've missed you."  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
I walked in school remembering that Aragorn was gone. For how long? When would I get the chance to see him again?  
  
"Hey Emma!" Ryson waves as he walks by. A girl is linked onto his arm, so I wont bother him. "Hey Ryson!" I shyly wave. I walk to my new locker and open it. When I do, a letter falls out. "Love you, Em. See you at lunch..." I mutter. It strangely looks like Aragorn's handwriting.  
  
"Hey."  
  
I whip around on my heel. I gasp. "Aragorn?" I jump into his arms. "Oh my god, what are you doing here?"  
  
He hugs me and then pulls away. "Now that doesn't look too right, if you get what I mean. My mom decided to let me go as long as I stay with her every other weekend or something!"  
  
"Oh my god, that's great!" I exclaim. "Well, I'm so glad you're here!"  
  
"Hey, Emma," I hear my name hissed as if it were an insult by itself. I glance over at Leanna, her arm linked around Earfalas. I laugh, noticing that they were both really tan, but Earfalas's face was a lot whiter than the rest of him! Wonder how THAT happened?  
  
"Earfalas is now coming here," Leanna snaps. "He's hotter than Legolas, so you can keep on dreaming for a better boyfriend, but you wont get one."  
  
I laugh. "Earfalas lives in a plain, boring house in Mirkwood, whereas Legolas owns the whole underground KINGDOM of Mirkwood. If you want to end up marrying a okay-looking guy who lives..."  
  
"Shut up, Emma!" snaps Earfalas, getting in my face. It probably would be best if I didn't sink to Leanna's level anyways.  
  
"Screw this," I say and look over to Aragorn. "Let's go to class. We're late as it is."  
  
  
  
Jake POV  
  
Lunch came around and I sat by myself. Iliana wouldn't get out of her class for another five minutes, so I would just wait for her. Oh I knew it was against the rules to kiss her on school grounds, but I just wanted to kiss her over and over again!  
  
All of the sudden, waking me up from my daydream, three girls sit down around me. One brunette girl goes, "Aww, what happened to your arm?"  
  
"I broke my wrist skateboarding," I say, smiling. If I ever wanted to break a bone, it would be skateboarding! It just sounded so cool.  
  
"Aww, you poor thing," says the blond. "Can we sign your arm?"  
  
"Sure!" I say. The other brunette grabs a sharpie and starts writing. "What's your name?"  
  
"Jake," I say.  
  
"Aw, cute name to match his face," says the blond.  
  
"Move out of the way, people!" Iliana practically yells. "Jake's mine!"  
  
She squeezes between the brunette girl and me and then wraps her arms around my waste. I hug her really tight. "I've missed you so much!" I say and sneak a little kiss on her forehead.  
  
The other girls roll their eyes and walk away. Good riddens! I have my beautiful babe, right here!  
  
  
  
You should expect the next chapter on July 4th cause I'm going to Mexico. Does anyone still read this? *frown* I miss a good bit of reviews. 3 Well, maybe I'm being selfish. Sorry. Hope you liked this chapter! 


	12. Depression conversation

Andmetwen- I actually had trouble being consistent with my story. I took a break to do another story and the whole time I just wanted to get to Gondor High! That's just my story. I did have another story that was pretty long. Thanks for coming this far!  
  
Depression Conversation  
  
Arleen POV  
  
"So, Arleen...where do you go to school?" Daniel asked. He had asked me lots of questions and he seemed interested in talking to me...surprisingly! Connor and Blake sat a little bit to the side talking together as they munched on their tacos. They had lost interest when Daniel and I practically shared our life stories...okay, that's an exaggeration.  
  
"I'm home schooled," I answer. "Wow, that's gotta be hard. I'd get so depressed not being made to see other people. I'm shy."  
  
"Speaking of depression...I've been wondering why your songs are so depressing..." His eyes were a little shifty and he wiggled his fingers nervously. "Well...not long ago I dumped my girlfriend for a little thing and she got over me while we weren't dating. When I wanted to go out with her again, she'd started dating someone else and my mother is now getting cancer moles burned off every three months and my grandmother died not long ago and..." he pauses and slaps his forehead, tightly closing his eyes. "Why am I telling you ALL of this?"  
  
I frown. "It's okay, Darien...I'm struggling with depression myself and I'm a little embarrassed to admit to everyone its because of loneliness. Everyone knows thought," I turn my head to the side a little.  
  
"We have that in common," Darien says. "I hope we both can get over it. I don't think it will be a quick and easy process for me, I'm afraid. I've stopped eating right..." Darien lifted his drink up to his mouth.  
  
"I've started to cut myself," I mutter. As soon as the words come out, I regret them. I had never told ANYONE that, not even my dad! I felt a shiver going down my spine.  
  
He set down his drink with a pop and some coke splashed out. "Really?" he said quietly. "That's not good...though I'll admit, I'd thought about doing it too."  
  
"Don't," I say. "Ever. It's a hard thing to stop doing."  
  
"I'm glad I can't talk to you about these things, Arleen. I don't really talk about it with anyone." We smiled at each other and I felt my heart jump into my throat.  
  
  
  
Darien POV  
  
That night as I sat awake in my dorm, with a paper ad pencil, all I could think about was Arleen and her brown hair that hung in front of her soft eyes. I was trying to think of writing some sort of happy song, but nothing that made me happy was coming to mind, except Arleen, that is...  
  
If I wrote a romantic song, would everyone think it was about/for her? That was my only concern. What COULD I write about that was happy, but deep and that wasn't Arleen? I couldn't think of anything. Before I knew it I was scribbling down things on my notepaper.  
  
'Heart like a red sunrise, Beautiful but dangerous, You caught me by surprise. Hold me when it's perilous.  
  
You make things better. Somehow you do. I can breath a little lighter, Thanks to you.'  
  
I smiled at what I had written so far. I wanted to make it a song, but I kept on wondering what people would think. What would I say if they asked whom it was about? I put my paper on my dresser and got back into bed. I had to go to a few classes tomorrow so it was probably a good idea to sleep.  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
The next morning when I rushed to my class, I thought I saw Darien go into my homeroom before me. When I went in, I saw that it WAS him! He looked back at me, and then started to unpack his stuff.  
  
I went to a desk a few rows away from him and sat. Legolas came in and sat next to me.  
  
"Whazzup?"  
  
"Did you notice that Darien is in our class?" I whisper.  
  
Legolas looks around, then looks at Darien. "Hey, what's up, Darien?"  
  
Darien gives a nod. "Nothing."  
  
Legolas turns back to me. "Is there something weird going on between you guys?"  
  
I shrug. "I think so...he doesn't talk to me. I thought we were cool with each other."  
  
"He probably doesn't know what to say now," Legolas says. "Trust me. I'm a GUY."  
  
"I sure hope so," I laugh and then bring out a book from my bag.  
  
"You KNOW so," Legolas says. At the corner of my eye I see Darien quickly glance at me. I blush because of how loudly Leggo said that!  
  
  
  
At lunch Darien sat by himself, until another longhaired guy came and sat with him. They both looked about the same age.  
  
"Blake, we need to practice after school. It's good we're taking tomorrow off too..." Darien says.  
  
I look down at my cold fish soup. Disgusting stuff! I felt like I was on Fear Factor. I pushed my soup away from me, as all of my friends had done with theirs. Legolas put his arm around me. "What's wrong?"  
  
  
  
Legolas POV  
  
Emma shrugs. "Nothing," she murmurs. I see her glance over at Darien again. I hope she doesn't like him again. I'm guessing she's just kind of upset that it doesn't seem like they're friends at all anymore.  
  
"Well, when you want to talk about it, tell me," I say and sneak a piece of Arwen's burger when she's not looking. She's the only one that didn't get the cafeteria lunch today.  
  
"Well..." Emma starts. "I miss Darien as a friend. Being around him and being unable to talk to him...it's just weird."  
  
"Yea, I know," I nod. "He might come around and maybe start to hang out with us again."  
  
"I hope so," Emma says quietly.  
  
Jake POV  
  
I walk into my bedroom that evening and there was Lance writing something on his bed.  
  
"Ah, my new roommate," Lance smiles and then looks up, bus as soon as he looks at me, he frowns. He looks me from my black converses to my head and looks at me disapprovingly. "You have converses. Are you gothic?"  
  
"Not really," I say. "I just like converses and black is my favorite color."  
  
He wrinkles his nose in dissatisfaction. "I wear only respectable clothes," he says as-a-matter-of-factly. I frown, already starting to dislike my roommate.  
  
"Yea, whatever," I say and throw my book bag on my bed. "And by the way...that's MY bed you're laying on."  
  
"Um, what are you gonna do? Push me off of it? You can have the other one."  
  
"But I picked it first and I like the bed by the window," I argue, trying not to sound too angry.  
  
He smiles. "As I told you before, there's nothing you can do about it. It's MY bed now."  
  
"Do you know who my parents ARE?" I snap.  
  
"The servants of Elrond?" he mocks.  
  
"Um, no! My father is the right hand man of Elrond!"  
  
Lance shrugs as if it were no big deal, but he doesn't bring up who HIS parents are. Figures.  
  
I sit down on my new bed and glare at him. God, I hate him already! 


	13. Misinterpretation

Misinterpretation  
  
Emma POV  
  
I couldn't help but feel extremely uncomfortable when Darien came to my class on Friday. He didn't really talk to anyone at school except these two friends he had that came only about twice a week. Every time a girl would talk with him, he'd blow her off right away and he'd hurry to the studio. None of that made me uncomfortable. The thing that made me so uncomfortable was that he seemed to have no interest in being friends with me anymore.  
  
Last time I had spent time with him, I had cried and he had hugged me. Seems like I did a lot of crying since I came to the school. Everyone acted like everything was one huge drama! But anyways, what happened to that Darien I knew? It was bugging the hell out of me and I was gonna talk to him! When the bell rang for last class, I leapt up just as he did and I ran after him. First, he didn't seem to notice, until I ran his direction, right behind him. "Hey," I say. "Can we talk?"  
  
He slows down and nervously glances around, but not directly at me. "Um, I guess."  
  
"How come you totally ignore me all the time now? I thought we left as friends!"  
  
He stops and looks at me, looking a bit angry all of the sudden. "Well, you were greatly mistaken. While you went out to little parties with your new boyfriend, I was stuck at home with no one to hang with! Even when I wasn't depressed, no one asked if I wanted to go have fun! No one ever asked me to do anything with them! Plus, you ran by my house with Legolas that one day, right by my house as if showing him off or something!"  
  
I pause, totally confused. "For one, I came over to your house like twice and you never answered. Second, I don't know who you saw me with...I came over with Jake once, NOT Legolas."  
  
His face loosens up and he looks a lot less angry. "No one cares about me, Emma. I don't think you do. I don't think really anyone does and if they do, hardly." He starts walking away, but I follow closely behind him.  
  
Now it's my turn to get frustrated. "Don't give me that pity-me-please shit, Darien! If I didn't care, I wouldn't have come to talk to you. I worry about you sometimes, Darien! I want to know that if you need help, you'd talk to me, and because just cause we're not dating, doesn't mean I don't I care about you!"  
  
He stops again, and then looks at me very miserably. "I'm sorry," he says. "I know you're right. And I am really sorry about everything that's happened between us."  
  
"Just cause we've had little arguments, doesn't mean we need to totally forget our friendship and move one, does it?"  
  
"No, it doesn't. Can we be friends again?"  
  
I smile. "That's what I came to talk to you about. We can definitely be friends again. Just remember that I DO care. Don't jump to conclusions!"  
  
He nods. "Hug?"  
  
"Hug," I agree. We both hug really tight, not really caring who saw us. It felt good knowing we were friends again. He was a great person, but he had his priorities a little wrong and needed to know he was cared about.  
  
"To make up for me ignoring you, you can come to the studio and meet my band, Radiochic!"  
  
I laugh. "You have a band now? Wow, it has been a long time."  
  
"Yea, they're great. You'd love them...but not as much as they'd love you," he says, rolling his eyes to himself. "But we've gotten a few songs down good. It's great."  
  
"Great, well when can I come?"  
  
"Right now, if you want. We have a practice in about thirty minutes."  
  
"Well, let's go get something at the Wizard's Cup and then head on over to the studio?"  
  
He smiles. "Sounds like a plan, nigga!"  
  
  
  
Legolas POV  
  
I neatly stack my books on top of one another in my locker and think about my plans for Emma and me today. Hopefully she'd have some time and we could have a little date or something. We usually did something on Friday nights.  
  
'We could maybe go out to a movie or go to a club, just me and her!' I say to myself.  
  
"Hey Legolas!" I turn my head to see Ryson. "Hey bro, what's going on?"  
  
"Nothing much. Want to hang out or something with some of my friends? Me and a few others wanted to go see Midnight Murder."  
  
"I might have plans with Emma," I say.  
  
"Isn't Emma going out with that guy, Darien?"  
  
I make a face. "No, I don't think they're even friends anymore. I'M going out with Emma."  
  
"I think they're friends or something. Just about everyone saw them talking and hug each other in the hall. They LEFT with each other too."  
  
I frown. Why didn't she tell me she was going somewhere with him? I wasn't really worried that something would happen between them, but I didn't understand why she didn't TELL me she was gonna go hang with him. It actually kinda bothered me. Hanging out with an ex just seemed so weird. I would never hang with an ex! Then again, I only had ONE that lived really far away...  
  
"Are you okay with that?" Ryson asks.  
  
"No, not really...but I trust her. I just don't trust HIM," I say. "I don't know him very well, but I know he'd liked her since he met her, like crazy."  
  
Ryson nods. "Well, you wanna see a movie with my friends or no?"  
  
I shrug. "Yea, sure. It'll be fun," I say, hoping that Ryson doesn't feel like just my second choice.  
  
  
  
Jake POV  
  
"That is my side of the closet!" Lance sneers and takes my clothes out of the closet and throw them on my bed. I really want to kill this kid. I hate, hate, HATE him!!! I bite my lip, trying not to burst out yelling. "All right, you need to shut the fuck up and leave me alone, PLEASE!" I say as calmly as possible. "This is not working out. We need to both get new roommates. We can both sign that form thingy so that we can have different roommates. Then both of us will be happy."  
  
"I think I like my room and I don't mind you, so I think I wont sign a form...just stay and bother you for as long as I can. Besides, my sister hates you, so I do too!"  
  
"You look up to that bitch?"  
  
"Don't call her a bitch!" he snaps. "She's a great sister."  
  
"Bitch, bitch, bitch! That's what she is! My sister is the great sister while yours is a fuckin whore!" I shout, really losing my temper now. We both jump off out beds and get right in each other's faces.  
  
"She's not even your REAL sister," he says.  
  
"Even when she and her family had to go through all this trouble to have me, they did, cause they loved me! She's a REAL sister."  
  
Lance backs off and lays on his bed. "I don't understand people like you. But either way, I'm gonna be your roommate."  
  
"HEY!" I exclaim. "Did your sister talk you into torturing me?"  
  
"Why would she do that?" he says, looking guilty, glancing around nervously.  
  
I narrow my eyes at him. "Because you were picked to be my roommate anyways so now she's gonna let you torture me! She can make you do anything, can't she? You're a sister's slave, AREN'T YOU?!"  
  
He looks defensive. "No, she can't make me do anything!"  
  
"I'm not convinced!" I say, crossing my arms.  
  
"I'll sign this form so we can have different roommates. My sister isn't my boss!"  
  
"Exactly!" I say. Wow, this bozo is stupid. It wasn't that hard to convince him...  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
Darien and I grab coffees and then he drives me to the studio. "I want you to hear us play. Prepare to be amazed!" he says and gives this cute toothy grin.  
  
I nod. "Oh yea," I say. "Darien, you'll blow me away!"  
  
"We'll rock your world, sista!" he continues to joke. "But no, really. We're not bad, if I say so myself."  
  
He stops the car and we walk inside. "Hey bro! Who's the babe?" says this shoulder length, curly haired guy, sitting down and messing with a bass.  
  
"This 'BABE' is my non-single FRIEND," Darien says sharply. "You're job is to play your bass."  
  
"Okay, okay," he says. "I didn't mean any harm or nothin'."  
  
"It's all good," I say. "I'm Emma."  
  
He pauses as if my name meant something to him. He probably had heard stuff about me that I really didn't want to hear. "I'm Connor. Nice to meet you."  
  
"You too," I say.  
  
Another boy bursts in the room. "Sorry guys!" he says. He has straight brown hair. "Am I late?"  
  
"Not really," Darien says. "Just in time."  
  
"Whose this?" the guy looks at me.  
  
"Possibly our first fan!" Darien says. I laugh at how funny that sounds.  
  
"So we're gonna practice and she's gonna watch?" the guy says.  
  
"Yea," Connor says. "Play yo toys, boy!"  
  
"Oh, and by the way," says the straight haired boy as he sits at his drums. "I'm Blake."  
  
"I'm Emma," I say again.  
  
Daniel picks up his guitar. "This song is probably not your kinda song...it's, well...really sad n' stuff. But it sounds good."  
  
Daniel starts off with the electric guitar really loud and metalish. Then Blake and Connor come in with the bass and drums and I have to say, it's REALLY good. What does he mean, not my style? It's awesome! It's actually pretty funny how much they look so good together, as a band and every time Blake beats the drum, Connor bops his head up and down. It's cute.  
  
"In the open, See the fairy princess, In the open, See the pain is less,  
  
Cries unheard and concealed, Decisions decided, Fresh sores so unhealed, Agony abided."  
  
At the same time Connor and Daniel jump and everything goes perfect, except that Connor goes off a beat for a second...still, they're so good. This other girl comes in the middle of the song and watches with me.  
  
"In the shadow of a tombstone, You'll hear her soft whispers. "Come back, I'm all alone", Muffled sounds like whimpers."  
  
The song ends and they smile halfheartedly as if hoping it was good enough. "Whoo hoo!! Bravo!" I applaud. The other girl follows my lead and claps.  
  
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, very much," says Daniel and I laugh. "Oh, Emma, this is Arleen. Arleen, Emma."  
  
"Hey!" I say, smiling at her.  
  
"Hi," she answers shyly.  
  
"Well, we have to practice a few more songs," Connor says. "Do you guys want to stay and listen?"  
  
"YES!" Arleen and I say eagerly. The three boys smile and start up a song again.  
  
  
  
Arleen's POV  
  
I can't help but feel really uncomfortable, sitting right next to Emma. Wasn't that the girl that he had broken up with recently? Why were THEY hanging out? Why was he hanging with an ex-girlfriend? Was he interested in her again? Lots of questions filled my head.  
  
As soon as the band stopped, Emma got up and started talking with the band.  
  
"You guys are pretty good. I'm proud of you, Darien!" she says, smiling at him. Does she LIKE him? Great, this all is just GREAT! I wouldn't be surprised if he still liked her too.  
  
"I've been working a lot, but I don't think I'm ALL that great," he says modestly. "Anyways, so we've played enough today. Why don't we go out to eat together? All of us!"  
  
"Yea, I am hungry for chicken!" Blake says, stepping up from his drums and rubbing his stomach.  
  
I wait a minute for them to include me, but no one does.  
  
"Ahh, seafood sounds good though..." Connor says.  
  
They start talking about where they'll go out to eat, but I just roll my eyes and sneak off. Doesn't seem that I'm wanted now that they have their little miss Emma to hang with.  
  
  
  
Darien POV  
  
When we finally agree on something to eat, I say, "Arleen, want to come with us?" But when I turn, she's not there. "Hmm...where'd she go?"  
  
"She probably had something to do," Connor said. "Let's go, I'm starving."  
  
The four of us drop everything then to go to my car. I frown to myself, wondering why Arleen went off so fast without me noticing. She could have said bye.  
  
"It's cool hanging with you guys!" Emma says.  
  
"Yea, it's cool being friends again," I say to Emma. "I guess we weren't meant to be more, but we make great friends."  
  
Connor and Blake glance over at each other.  
  
"Yea...why don't we go to the movies after dinner? I hear that new movie Midnight Murder is good," Emma says.  
  
"I wanna go see that!" Blake exclaims.  
  
"Let's go!" Connor agrees. "I was wondering if that movie was out. Have you seen that commercial where that girl like screams and then..." Connor starts going on, explaining the whole commercial.  
  
"Okay, Connor, enough! We'll see the movie!"  
  
"Yay!" he explains, reminding me of a kid getting candy.  
  
  
  
After the movie, we're all trying to talk at the same time about our favorite parts. I have my arm around Emma's shoulders and Blake has his on her shoulders, on the other side, and she has her arms around our wastes. We just walk together, laughing like crazy, like a big group of friends that have known each other forever. Chris walks along close by and laughs along with us.  
  
I see a blond guy in front of us and he turns to talk to someone and I get to see his face. "Legolas!" I exclaim and jump away from Emma's side. Legolas hears me and turns around quickly. Blake still has his arm around Emma and Emma stops talking and looks at Legolas.  
  
Emma starts pushing Blake away, but Blake looks a little confused. It wasn't like Blake LIKED Emma, but with him and his arm around her all by himself...looked a little wrong!  
  
Legolas's eyes widen and he looks totally confused. "Whose he?" Blake asks stupidly. Emma doesn't say anything.  
  
"The question is, who is HE?" Legolas says. "Who is he, Emma?"  
  
"My...uh, new friend."  
  
"Friend with his ARM around you?" Legolas snaps. "I can't believe that you let guys hang on you like that when you think I'm not around!" Oh no, this isn't good.  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
I really don't know what to say! How can I explain I wasn't cheating? There was no way I could convince him Blake wasn't hanging on me...but it wasn't like THAT!  
  
"Legolas..." I say slowly. "It's not like it looks."  
  
"I don't understand how you can let a guy put his arm around you that you don't know hardly and think it's okay!" Legolas snaps.  
  
"Hey man, stop yelling at her!" Blake snaps back. "You've got it all wrong!"  
  
"I saw enough, 'man'!" Legolas says. "And I didn't like it!"  
  
"Darien and Blake had their arms around her at the same time. Just like friends...it wasn't like that..." Connor tries to cover for me too.  
  
Darien makes a face like "don't get me into this, please!"  
  
Legolas's mouth drops a little. "Emma, you let Darien put his arm around you too? Since when do you let all the guys put their arms around you? I've had enough of this shit. I can't believe this."  
  
Legolas storms off and I just watch. I wish I could have said something that would have made him believe me! I watch him drive away, not bothering to look at me again. I feel tears start to spill out of my eyes. Blake pats my back. "I'm so sorry, Emma. I've screwed things up for you."  
  
"Me too," Connor says. "I shouldn't have been such a big mouth."  
  
"And none of us should have put our arms around Emma even if it was just a buddy-buddy thing. It can always look bad."  
  
I feel sobs rack my body and we walk towards Darien's car. Darien pats my back and Connor stands on the other side of me saying things like, "It'll be okay. He'll find out you're not cheating on him. You love him and he'll see that."  
  
Blake walks behind looking really guilty for some reason. I look back at him real quick. "Blake, don't feel bad," I sniff. "It's not your fault."  
  
He nods, but doesn't really believe me. It starts raining on our way back. They drop me off in silence, except when I get out of the car, Darien says "We're sorry, Em. If you need someone to talk to, please call me. The least I can do is be the friend you've been for me."  
  
"We hope to see you again soon, Emma!" Connor says.  
  
"Yea, next time we wont screw things up for you!" Blake says. "Things will work out with you and Legolas."  
  
"Thanks guys. You guys are great and whether Legolas wants to have a cow about this or not, I'll still hang out with you guys when I can. You guys are cool." I shut the door and run through the heavy rain towards my building.  
  
The boys were so sweet, but my mind wasn't really focused on that. How was I gonna get Legolas to believe me? I know he would at least let me explain, but whether he believed me or liked the idea...that was the problem. 


	14. Without you

Without You  
  
Talim was curled on her bed with a book when I came in. I was soaking wet from head to foot, my mascara was smeared all down my cheeks and my eyes were probably bloodshot.  
  
"Emma," she says dropping her book. "Are you okay?"  
  
I sniffed. "Legolas pretty much said we're through..."  
  
Talim hopped up and got me a towel. "I'm sure things will be okay. Tell me what happened."  
  
  
  
"So that's what happened..." I say finally.  
  
She bites her lip for a moment and looks at me. Finally she speaks. "He'll understand some time. Just act like everything's normal. Hang out with Darien and his friends and don't let anything get weird there. Then talk to Legolas. He's gonna want to know all that happened. After he cools off, he always does."  
  
"Thanks Talim," I say.  
  
"Oh and guess what?" she asks. "Eomer has been begging to get back together with me!"  
  
"Begging? You haven't just said yes?"  
  
"No," she says. "He met some girl while I was gone and she turned out to be cheating on him. I'm gonna show him how much he misses me by letting him suffer without anyone. I got some new clothes, I'm gonna get my hair cut again, and I got some different makeup. He's gonna be groveling on the floor...well, he already is."  
  
I smile. "Talim, you always know what to do with guys. Thanks. I trust your judgment with Legolas."  
  
"Good, and you should! Now, let's try to get some sleep. It's getting late," she says. Talim turns on the radio to my favorite station like we've been doing every night.  
  
  
  
Legolas POV  
  
I wasn't even close to calm. Even if Emma wasn't cheating, which I assumed she would have if I hadn't seen her then. How could she let some guy get all over her...plus her arm had been around HIM too! And what was this about Darien doing the same thing? I should have tried to find her before Darien and her left together...  
  
God that sounded so weird. Them leaving somewhere together...ugh! I was always able to trust her! What had happened?  
  
I sigh and lay in my bed. Eomer was out at a party most likely with Faramir and I was alone tonight. I turn off the lights and turn on the radio. I just listen the music.  
  
"Bridge was burnt that kept our hearts connected, Now there's nowhere for me to turn to, Did I misunderstand or was I rejected? Now I know I'm torn from you. Stop rejecting me as if I tried to hurt you, When you feel like life's a little better Remember all the times I was here for you Come back cause I am here for you."  
  
The song seemed kind of cheesy, but it seemed to be just the thing I needed to hear. I really felt as if I needed to know what really happened. Emma would tell the truth if I asked what had happened. That's what I was going to do.  
  
  
  
Arleen's POV  
  
The next morning I woke up early to go to the studio with my dad. There had been some emergency meeting or something, I don't know...but I would have nothing to do at home if I stayed.  
  
If I went I might even get to hang with Radiochic. I hoped that girl, Emma, wasn't there. Seemed that when she was there, she had Darien's full attention.  
  
When we arrived at the studio, Darien was coming in too. The band was recording their first song, Black Fairy Princess, today.  
  
"Hey," Darien said quietly as we walked into the studio. My dad ran off right away and Darien jogged excitedly to one of the recording rooms. I had a feeling for some reason that this was gonna be another lonely day for me. I don't know why, but I felt tears start to form in my eyes. God, I hated my life.  
  
  
  
Darien POV  
  
After me and the boys were done with everything, it had been a few hours. Seems that it had never been good enough till we finished the song forty times!  
  
We walk out together, too tired to be as crazy and hyper as we usually are. "Hi, Arleen. What's up?"  
  
Arleen jumps and turns in her father's computer chair. "Nothing. You?"  
  
"Nothing..."  
  
Blake and Connor wave goodbye and walk out of the studio quietly. I sit next to Arleen. "I haven't really got to talk to you in a few days. What's up with that?"  
  
She rolls her eyes and shrugs. "I don't know."  
  
"Is there something wrong?" I press.  
  
"No," she says. "I'm like this a lot. Don't take it personally. You seem to be doing so much better emotionally, where as I am not."  
  
I frown. "Did I do something wrong?"  
  
"Is that girl, Emma, your ex?" she asks, strangely changing the subject.  
  
"Yea," I answer. "Why?"  
  
She shrugs again. "I just wondered. I guess that's why you're a lot happier now?"  
  
"Everything's been better," I say. "Where are you getting at..."  
  
"I don't know where I'm getting at, Darien!" she says crossly. "I don't know what's up with my lately." She covers her eyes with one hand and holds her breath as if trying not to cry.  
  
I pat her back rather awkwardly and say "It'll be okay," over and over again. "I don't like her for some reason," Arleen says. "I think I'm jealous."  
  
I pause. "Now that's silly. Why would you be jealous of her?" I ask, trying to look under her hand at her face.  
  
She removes her hand and looks at me with sad, watery eyes. "Because, you're obviously interested in her still! You never included me when she was around yesterday!"  
  
It all was making sense to me now. I had a little confidence, just because it seemed that she liked me...like I liked her. Still, she continued. "When I was around you from the start, Darien, I always felt like my depression was gone. Then she comes and I feel totally ignored."  
  
My mouth drops open a little. I wanted to grab onto her, look into those bright eyes, and tell her I loved her too, but something was holding me back. She was right. Why hadn't I made her feel included yesterday? I felt incredibly guilty. "But, Arleen, that's how I've been feeling with you too. Emma and I agreed we could never be more than friends again. But when I met you, things did become a lot better. I came to talk to you cause I've missed being with you these past few days."  
  
She grins. "Really?"  
  
"Really," I say. "I'm into you, Arleen."  
  
She blushes and looks down a little. "I'm glad," she says and looks up. "Because you've been my cure."  
  
We both look into each other's eyes and draw close. This moment was perfect and I just wanted to freeze time. Before her lips met mine, her father's voice boomed, "It's time to close the studio for today!" Arleen jumps back and starts picking up her purse and stuff. "Get your stuff, kids!" her father says.  
  
I frown and grab my guitar out of one of the rooms. I'm gonna finish the song about Arleen tonight and sing it to her when I get the chance. Maybe then we'd be able to have another one of those moments... 


	15. A Mistake of a Date

Okay, I have a few questions and I'm asking everyone to answer. Who should Darien be with? Who should Emma be with? Who should Legolas be with? Who should Talim be with? I'm want lots of random suggestions!! I like crazy, wild, surprising things, and I want to know who you want everyone to be with though. At least answer one question and leave the rest to me. Thanks. But I'm pretty sure I know who Darien's gonna be with.  
  
A Mistake of a Date  
  
Darien POV  
  
The next day, Sunday, I woke up late. Ah, waking up late is the best thing ever. I called Arleen, because I had nothing else to do.  
  
"Hello," Arleen sounded very awake.  
  
"Hi," I say. "It's Darien. You want to go hang out today? I have nothing planned..."  
  
"Sure, what were you thinking?"  
  
"I don't know...we could go to the Wizard's cup and then maybe walk in that big park by the school...just get to know each other and stuff."  
  
"Sounds good," she says.  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
That morning, I woke up with a knock at my door. Talim had already gone when I was still asleep, so it was just me. "Ugh...come in."  
  
Legolas walks in slowly and shuts the door. I'm still curled up under my blankets. "Hi," he says. "I wanted to talk. Or, more like I want to hear you talk. I want to know everything that happened."  
  
I sigh and sit up. "I went to the movies with Darien and his friends and we were all laughing when we came out. Darien and his friend Blake were real close to me, so we just put our arms around each other and just kept on laughing about the movie...that's all. Then Darien let go. He realized the awkwardness or whatever. Then you saw Blake and me..."  
  
Legolas rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Do you still have feelings for Darien?"  
  
I was taken back by that. "What? Why would you say that?"  
  
"Because, you both are just so flirty with one another still. I can just tell. And he looks at you that way and you act like it's normal..."  
  
"Legolas, I think you're acting crazy. That's the strangest thing I've ever heard. Darien and I both agreed that it's over between us!"  
  
"Maybe that's what you SAID, but is it what you FEEL? I want the full truth, Em."  
  
Now I was starting to get confused and angry. I could never stop hanging out with Darien, but that didn't mean I liked him...surely it didn't. Why was Legolas getting all paranoid about this? It was ridiculous.  
  
"It's all right, Em. You left with him without asking if I was okay with you hanging out with him. Hanging out with your ex? Doesn't that sound a little weird to you? Do I go off with Talim still?"  
  
I wanted to blow up at him. My own boyfriend was calmly accusing me of having crush on an ex as if it were no big deal! How could he even THINK a tiny bit that I still liked Darien? Why was he so CERTAIN I was when really he had only seen my arm around BLAKE. I was confused. It was so ridiculous. Legolas was just acting irrational.  
  
"I can't believe this, Darien..."  
  
"See, see!!!" Legolas exclaimed. "You just CALLED me DARIEN!!"  
  
My mouth dropped open a little. "Well, uh, that has nothing to do with it!!! You're just being irrational!!"  
  
"Me, being irrational? Seriously, just notice how you act around him once in awhile!"  
  
"You don't have to get mad! I didn't do anything! I love YOU!"  
  
"I'm not mad," he says, trying to be calm again. "I'm just...i don't know. Maybe I'm just jealous and scared..."  
  
"You are scared. And you don't need to be. Darien and I are FRIENDS and I love you so much differently than I love him."  
  
He sighed. "Yea, I guess you're right. I'm sorry we got into this fight at all. It was all a stupid misunderstanding."  
  
"Wanna hug?" I ask.  
  
"Please," he says, like a sad, adorable kid. We hugged and he left to go hand out with his friends. What a day. Already, I had tons of things to think about.  
  
  
  
When I picked Arleen up, we had hardly anything to say. We had hardly spoken a few words until we got to the wizard's cup.  
  
"So..." she says slowly. "What to we have in common besides getting over depression?"  
  
I paused. "Um, we like the same kind of music," I say. I know, I know, REALLY dumb.  
  
She seems unimpressed. "Um, true...we, um, both like hanging around the studio."  
  
I was probably less impressed than she had been. For one, I didn't like being in the studio all too much. I liked being with my friends and I liked playing my guitar, but it was a real small, closed in, stuffy place.  
  
"Yea," I lie. "The studio is...cool."  
  
"You don't like it very much, do you?"  
  
"Um, no, actually...not really."  
  
"Oh," she says. We order our coffees and don't say anything for a while. "So," she says again. "What are turn-on's for you? Just wondering."  
  
"I like girls that skateboard. I've always thought that would be cool to have a girlfriend that would skateboard and maybe play guitar with me. I like blond hair a lot..." I paused. "Um, and brunettes too." This was not going too well. There was NOTHING going on too well except my coffee was extremely good. "Um, good coffee, huh?"  
  
"Yea," she says halfheartedly, taking a sip. "My turn ons are talkative guys that make me feel comfortable," she says. 'I'm not very talkative,' I think to myself.  
  
"And I like guys willing to do about anything for me." 'Dream on, girl,' I think. "And I like guys with tattoos and piercings. Like, just a few," she continues.  
  
"Um...I got an earring" I say stupidly.  
  
She shrugs. "I like eyebrow rings," she says.  
  
I wince. I wasn't going to get an eyebrow ring...not even for her, even if she was pretty. And she wants a guy who'd do ANYTHING for her? I coughed just thinking about that.  
  
This wasn't going all that great. I had never thought this date could be so bad. I thought everything was going to be perfect. That's why I had even bought a new shirt last night to wear today, hoping she'd like it.  
  
'Perfect,' I thought sarcastically. 'Just PERFECT!' I wasn't looking forward to taking her to the park after this. I had a feeling we were both gonna want to cut this date short.  
  
Okay, time to give me lots of random suggestions. Thanks 3 


	16. Hell Breaks Loose

Bobby- Okay, please don't tell me I don't portray home schooling how it is. Cause I'm home schooled too. We have different parents and different school junk, I bet. I went to school too and I think home schooling can be very boring and lonely. People are different. There's not one opinion for it. And I know the sex scene sucked. I haven't written one in a while.  
  
MONICA- Is it okay if I put you with Rimonna instead of Leanna? Rimonna is gonna start being a bitch again...  
  
Hell Breaks Loose  
  
Leanna POV  
  
"Those that wished to have different roommates, please come to the office at once. You have a new roommate assigned for you." I sighed and walked towards the principal's office. I was so damn sick of Arwen, I'd settle with any roommate...besides Emma. "Hey, give me the forms," I snap at the lady at the little desk. She sneers, but gives me a sheet of paper.  
  
"Who is Monica Fallen?" I mutter.  
  
"You're new roommate obviously," said the lady.  
  
"Maybe I wasn't talking to you!" I snap at the old ladies face. I turn and walk away.  
  
"Well, I suggest therapy. Talking to yourself isn't normal!" she shouts.  
  
Then I see my brother, Lance, walking up. "Lance, what are you doing?" I snap. "You're supposed to annoy Jake..."  
  
"Maybe you're not my boss," Lance snaps.  
  
I'm quite taken back by this. "What do you mean? I AM your boss! I'll tell mom and dad that..."  
  
"That I'm not being mean to kids like your telling me to be? You go do that. I'm sure they'll ground me then," he says sarcastically. My eyes widen at him and he storms off. Then Jake runs up, literally glowing. "Nice day, isn't it?" Jake says, going by slowly to talk to me.  
  
I laugh coldly. "Shut up, twerp."  
  
"Gladly," he says and as I walk past him, his dirty old skater shoe goes right in front of my brand new gold Polly Esce high-heels. I scream, "fuck!" and hit the floor.  
  
The lady at the desk looks up. "She tripped over he heels!" Jake exclaims. "Leanna, are you okay?"  
  
"You lying, bitch! I scream, wobbling up.  
  
The principal comes out. "Who just said that?" he practically yells. Jake points to me.  
  
"Leanna Goldleaf, you KNOW we do not tolerate such language in our fine school, especially yelling it out right at the front hall!" He grabs Leanna by her dress collar and leads her into his office.  
  
"Bye, Leanna," Jake whispers and waves with the stupid fag grin of his!!!  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
"All students please report to the Stage room for a school meeting. Come immediately!!"  
  
"I wonder what that's about," I say to Arwen.  
  
"I don't know," she shrugs. "But it sounds important. Let's get going."  
  
  
  
The whole school was in the big auditorium also called the stage room. The principal stood with a microphone in his hand. "I'm afraid that lots of the students are going to be rezoned to a new school, South Gondor High and we are changing this school's name to North Gondor High."  
  
Everyone talked at once, most people sounding very angry and sad. "Quiet!" yelled the principal. "I will call the names of all the students leaving."  
  
He called so many names and every few minutes, someone else was leaving the school that I loved. But when it came to the end, I never heard my name, so I was staying here! Eowyn, Eomer, Faramir, Boromir, Tony, Earfalas, and Leanna were all leaving. That meant Rimonna, Ryson, Legolas, all of Radiochic, Arwen, Aragorn, and Talim were staying....  
  
I was crushed. I looked over at Talim who had her eyes locked with Eomer. They were gonna have to be apart now! The only good news was that Leanna was leaving and I couldn't concentrate on that...Eowyn was leaving! People I had shared so many memories with were leaving! I had been so excited to share lots of memories with them AGAIN this year!  
  
I looked over at Jake, a few rows away from me. He too looked extremely sad! And then I remembered, I had heard Iliana's name being called. That was his little girlfriend!  
  
"BUT!" the principal's voice boomed. "We are having a formal dance this Friday and then next week, everyone will split up and some will stay here and some will go to South Gondor for school...but this is the last dance with all of us together, so don't do anything that might ruin Friday for anyone else. We want it to be a great night for everyone."  
  
  
  
At lunch, everything was going crazy. Everyone was moaning and freaking out about everything. Eowyn was crying, Talim and Eomer wouldn't stop sadly looking at each other, and everyone else was just talking about how horrible this was. I hadn't even got the chance to comfort poor Jake.  
  
Ryson came and sat down. He was frowning like the rest of us. "Hey guys. All my band friends are leaving."  
  
I looked at him sympathetically. "Don't worry, Ryson. You have a spot at our table...with the few of us left," I say quietly.  
  
Eowyn burst into tears again and Faramir and Eomer patted her back.  
  
"I'm not going!" Boromir exclaimed. "And no one's going to make me leave this place!"  
  
"I wish we could all stay here," I said, ignoring Boromir's craziness.  
  
"Damn straight I aint leavin'," Eomer said. "I paid to go to this school and I aint leaving!"  
  
The whole table was yelling, crying, or trying to calm other ones down. I wanted to burst into tears myself. This was hell. I didn't want my friends to leave!  
  
  
  
Yea, I know, it was short, but tomorrow should be good and long!! 3 


	17. the last dance 1

The Last Dance part 1  
  
Rimonna POV  
  
This year wasn't much better than last. Legolas was finally single and just as sexy as ever, but was he interested in me? Oh no, of course not.  
  
I was bored of my life here and I was going to try again to fit in, but with a different way. If only I could prove that Emma wasn't the great person everyone thought she was. She had to have some secret that was hidden from her friends or SOMETHING. Maybe all I had to do was BE her friend first...till a time came where I could reveal some horrible truth about Emma.  
  
I shrugged to myself. Just then, someone opened the door. I turned around to see a girl with shoulder length brown hair, looking at me. She had a duffel bag on one arm and a suitcase on wheels behind her. "Hi," she said with a smile. "I'm Monica, you're new roommate."  
  
After all these kids leaving, roommates got switched and all this crazy stuff. "Hi," I say, turning back to my makeup mirror. "You're bed is by the closet."  
  
I noticed that this Monica chick was looking down at my floor in disgust. She walked over my pile of wet towels and went to her bed. It was unmade and had a few things of mine on it. I had had a guy from a club over last night and we'd kinda had some fun in the bed, but Monica wouldn't know. She took the sheets off immediately and put them in the dirty clothes pile.  
  
"Do you clean...ever?" Monica asked, wiping the dust from her small table. "I'm not a neat freak, but I'm sorry. This is ridiculous."  
  
I gave a sharp look at Monica. "If you don't like it, clean it yourself!"  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
Friday came around and things had been so weird all week. Legolas was spending lots of time with Eomer since they wouldn't be roommates anymore. Everything just sucked major. The only people I knew who were actually unmoved by all of this was Daniel, Ben, and Chris. They still had each other, only because they HAD to stay at this school, or no school, because of their work.  
  
Things between Legolas and me weren't the same. Both of us were officially single, but ya know, I really didn't mind it at all. We'd always be friends and maybe we'd go out again, but that was the way life was. Not everything goes your way and you don't always have a perfect relationship.  
  
Anyways, so I was wearing this old pink dress that was rather plain. It had some flowers on it, but nothing really special about it. I had white platforms and I had gotten my hair cut shoulder length [it had been to my butt] and got it all layered cool. I was going to look kinda cute for this whole dance. I felt kinda weird not having a date...but this dance was to mostly say bye to the people you loved. So, that's what I was going to do. Show Eowyn and the others that I'd miss them.  
  
Talim came in the room in this sleek black spaghetti strapped dress and her chin length hair was flipped out and wild looking. She looked so pretty, but at the same time, so cold and lonely. She hadn't said much these few days, but at least she wasn't constantly bawling like Eowyn. Actually, I'd only seen her cry once and only a little this week. She was brave.  
  
"I wish I had gone out with Eomer instead of playing hard to get," she says quietly. "We would have had more alone, one on one, time together.  
  
I nod and look at her sympathetically. "It'll be all right, Talim. You guys will either be able to make it through and visit on weekends, though it'd be hard, or you if it's not worth it, you can just let him go...you'll really see how much he loves you if he stays with you even so far away."  
  
Talim looked in the mirror and put her earrings in. "That's the thing," she said, almost whimpering. "I don't think he loves me enough to do that. I don't think he'll go through with it. It's five hours to South Gondor High."  
  
I hug her sideways. "Talim, things will be okay. If he can't see that you're worth it, then you'll find someone else who does. You're the school hottie. All the boys like you!"  
  
She huffs. "Not really."  
  
"Um, YES really! All the boys think you are so wild and fun...and gorgeous."  
  
She crosses her arms. "Name ONE guy!"  
  
I smile. "Eomer, of course. Before you two were going out, Faramir and Boromir said so. All the boys check you out! And not long ago I heard Connor say that you were drop dead gorgeous."  
  
"Connor? You mean that guy in Darien's band that is really shy?"  
  
"Yea, and he's an amazing guy," I say. "And he'll be there tonight. But talk to Eomer. See what he thinks about you guys staying together."  
  
"I will," she says, suddenly looking sad. "I love him."  
  
"I know you do," I say.  
  
  
  
As soon as Talim and I got into the Ball Hall, Eomer ran up, took Talim by the hand, and led her somewhere private. There were already so many people around, I wasn't sure if any other of my friends were here.  
  
"Hey Emma." I turn around to see Leanna. "Looks like we're finally getting what we've wanted. "We're now going to different schools!"  
  
I gave the coldest smile I could. "Yea... I know I'll be happier."  
  
"I don't know," she shrugs. "I'm gonna miss torturing you. But oh well, I'll find someone else to torture."  
  
"And I greatly pity your next victim," I say. She laughs grimly and walks away. God, I hate her!  
  
  
  
Talim POV  
  
Eomer puts his arm around me. "I'm going to miss you, Talim," he says. "I'll miss everything about you."  
  
"Does that mean we'll stay together?"  
  
He pauses, which makes me wonder... "Uh, yea, of course."  
  
I frowned because for some reason that didn't sound reassuring or the slightest bit romantic. Sounded like the very side Eomer I met when he dumped me. I had bad feelings about this.  
  
"You're not being honest," I say, trying not to sound cold. "You won't be able to handle the distance. And you'll fall in love with someone else. You used to tell me nothing could keep us apart."  
  
"Well, actually, I think we should stay broken up. You'll want someone to comfort you when your sad and I won't be able to. And trust me, I want to be for you! I don't want it to hurt so badly when you need your boyfriend, but he's far away. I'd rather see you with someone else and have someone that really could care for you...and unfortunately, I can't be that guy."  
  
I was sad, but I finally understood. "So if you were staying here..."  
  
"I'd want to be with you more than anything. Like in a different school, I'll want to be with you. But it's just better that we move on. We can talk on the phone every week and still stay friends. And I'm gonna go crazy without you for a WHILE...but we can move on. I know we can."  
  
I hugged him tightly around his chest and he hugged me back and placed a kiss on my forehead. "I love you."  
  
"I love you too," I cried.  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
I'd spent half an hour talking with Eowyn. It seemed that over the summer she had just sort of changed. It wasn't in a bad way or good way, really, she just wasn't the same person I had known. She had gotten a little wilder and over talkative somehow.  
  
I wasn't gonna mind so much the rezoning. It'd be less people to always crowd around. I was going to be able to visit South Gondor every three months so that'd be enough time to see them and we'd get to go to cool places we'd never been.  
  
After I'd talked a little with a few people that were going, I just stood by myself, hoping someone would talk to me. Eomer and Talim were dancing together, Aragorn, Legolas, and Faramir were talking about something, and Arwen was talking with this one girl I'd never seen with brown shoulder length hair and a pretty smile...  
  
And I was just standing all by myself.  
  
"Hey, Em." I turned to see Darien. He was dressed in black pants and a blue button down, which looked very nice compared to his usual outfits. "I haven't talked to you in about a week. How's it going?"  
  
"All right," I nod.  
  
"You and Legolas seem to be cool again. I knew it would work out."  
  
"Yea," I say, smiling. "But we're not dating. So what about you? Any new girls?"  
  
"Yea, well that one girl at the studio...but we tried to get romantic and have a date, but that turned out to be a disaster. Some people are just meant to be friends. So, yea, I'm unfortunately single too."  
  
"Ah, I kinda like being single," I say, laughing. "I'm free to flirt with guys now!"  
  
He laughed too. "That is true."  
  
"So, since we're both just standing around, wanna dance?"  
  
"I can't dance very good to slow songs," he says.  
  
I smile. "Well, I can teach you!"  
  
  
  
Legolas POV  
  
I looked over at Emma, dancing and laughing with Darien. Sickening! I stepped forward to cut in right away, and then I shook my head, remembering that Emma and I weren't dating. It was weird to think about us actually having a break and being in the same school. I don't think I minded so much...  
  
I glanced over at them again. Emma was blinking wildly and scratching her eyelid. Then Darien got close to examine her and then removed a piece of hair from her eye. Then they smiled at each other and I swear they were going to kiss, until Darien turned to the side and coughed violently.  
  
I turned to the crowd and wondered if I wasn't dating Emma, who WOULD I date? I never really thought about looking for someone else. My eyes went over Talim, laughing, and then sipping punch. I shook my head and then kept looking around. Well, the truth was, I wasn't interested in anyone else, really.  
  
  
  
Talim POV  
  
I took the punch cup away from my mouth and looked around to see where Eomer had gone. I saw him in a far off corner talking with some of his football friends. I sighed and looked around for someone to talk to. Everyone seemed to be talking with someone, till I noticed Legolas standing amongst everyone...just standing and watching everyone.  
  
I literally pushed my way through the crowd to get to him. "Hi," I said.  
  
He looked at me and smiled. "Hey Talim. Why aren't you with Eomer?"  
  
"It's not like I'm his only friend here. He wants to talk to other people before he leaves," I answer. "Why are you just standing here?"  
  
He shrugs. "Because...there's no one to dance with. Do YOU want to dance?"  
  
I nod. "Yea, sure."  
  
Legolas and me walk to the floor and we smile at each other. I'm glad he's not leaving, just because he's been such a great friend and influence in just about everyone's life here.  
  
  
  
Arwen POV  
  
"You're rooming with Rimonna?" I say. "The most insecure bitch in the school!"  
  
"Yea, well, I noticed she's a bitch," Monica sneers. "And everything she's said already has gotten on my nerves."  
  
"What a nightmare," I say. "Well, you can hang with me on Monday! You are too nice to hang around someone like her. Seems like she once was nice, but over the time I've known her, she's got worse and worse."  
  
"I'd love to hang with you and your friends!" she exclaims. "I'm new to this school, you know, and it seems that because of the rezoning, no one's noticed I exist."  
  
"Well, you're too cool to be unnoticed! You can definitely hang with me," I say.  
  
She literally glows after I say that. Suddenly, Aragorn appears. "Come on, let's dance!" he says and grabs me.  
  
"I'll see you later, Monica!" I yell. She really does seem like a cool person.  
  
  
  
REVIEW!!!!!!!!! 


	18. the last dance 2

The Last Dance part 2  
  
Legolas POV  
  
I remember dancing with Talim and the music suddenly going fast. Someone screamed to switch partners and the next thing I knew I was with Emma!  
  
"Emma!" I exclaim. "I was hoping you'd be the one I'd be dancing with sooner or later."  
  
  
  
Talim POV  
  
I remember spinning away from Legolas and someone grabbing me after someone shouted "switch partners!". I looked up and it was Emma's ex-boyfriend, Darien. He smiles shyly and the song became slow.  
  
"Hey Darien!" I say. "I've never really got to talk to you, but I've heard so many great things about you from Em."  
  
He looks at me again and smiles a little more. "I've heard that you're best friends with Emma. You must be really special, cause I think everyone wants to be her best friend."  
  
I shrug. "Yea, well we just clique."  
  
We're quiet for a moment, then he talks again. "What kinda music do you like?"  
  
"I like lots of different stuff. Mostly rock and I like pop. I'd rather have a CD with the artist really talented then a fake untalented artist that has catchy music. Make sense?"  
  
"Totally," he says. "I like rock and alternative best."  
  
"Yea, that's right, you're in that band with your two friends, right? I heard you play at that party at Arwen's. I don't remember much..."  
  
"Cause you were drunk," Darien adds with a chuckle.  
  
I cough. "Anyways, I thought you were pretty good! Why don't you play for the school sometime?"  
  
"Well, we're only done with two songs so far, and working on some more, but we don't have enough songs done. Ya know?"  
  
"Yea, I gotcha. I'd like to hear you play some time."  
  
"If you come with Emma next time she watches us practice, that'd be cool!" he says.  
  
"Good, I'll make sure she lets me know when you guys are going!"  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
"They seem to be getting along well," Legolas says, looking over at Talim and Darien.  
  
"Am I mistaken or do you have some feelings left for Talim?" I ask, smiling.  
  
He looks at me, shocked, though I know he's thought about getting back together with her. They really would look cute together, but then again, Talim really looks perfect with any cute guy. "Of course not!" Legolas says, and looks the opposite way of Talim."  
  
"Legolas!" I say.  
  
He looks at me and sighs, finally giving in and slowly nodding, only slightly. "Well, I've thought about getting back together with her, even though we decided it's weird with us together. I'm really confused, right now about lots of things..."  
  
I nod. "I knew it. I knew you liked her!"  
  
He glances at me with sharp, annoyed eyes. "Hey, you don't have to say it like that."  
  
"It's not a bad thing," I say. "Maybe it's good if we all just stay single. What's the rush, really? We have a whole year."  
  
  
  
Talim POV  
  
"What kinda guys do you like, Talim?" Darien asked, giving me a spin and then catching me.  
  
"I like sensitive guys...though I've never dated one," I say. He laughs. "I like guys who are quiet, but at the right time, they show a wild side. A little weird?"  
  
"No, not weird," I say honestly. "I like a girl that always wants to go out places, but then doesn't mind just sitting, watching the teli with me. Um, just likes being with me."  
  
"That's understandable," I say. "So, tell me, Darien. What kinda guy are you?"  
  
"Um," he says and looks up as if thinking hard. "I'm quiet, actually. I have trouble talking with people when I'm in new places. I hardly know anyone here...I don't fit in with a lot of football loving, masculine guys. I'm in touch with my feminine side...I'll admit it."  
  
"What do you mean?" I asked.  
  
"I never was a rough kid in school. I got beat up just cause the boys knew I never wanted to get in fights and things like that. I don't like sports, but I like playing music...just things like that. I'm not like girly or anything."  
  
"I gotcha," I say. "Really, that's what a lot of girls like."  
  
"So I'm told," He says. "Though lots of girls where I used to live were just kinda slutty and I never really knew if they liked me for me. Now I'm here. It's kinda hard cause I don't fit in anywhere really except with my two friends."  
  
"Well I think you're cool. If you'd open up and talk to some people you'd me mister popularity!"  
  
He smiled shyly. "Thanks," he said. "You're really cool, Talim."  
  
I looked at Darien hard. I realized why Emma found him so attractive. At first he looked like a normal guy, but when you looked harder, his hair appeared softer and his eyes were the brightest blue I'd ever seen on a human. Plus, what I like about human guys, they love elvish girls and respect them more than elf-boys do.  
  
"You have pretty eyes," I say randomly.  
  
He stares back into my eyes. "Yours are very pretty, too..." he stops and grins playfully. He has a VERY cute smile. "Hey, are you trying to seduce me?"  
  
Before I even think about it, I say, "Maybe I am."  
  
His smile disappeared and he drew near to me. I closed my eyes and felt his warm lips fall on mine. He pulls away only slightly and then whispers, "It worked," and then kisses me again. I don't know how much time went by, but when we finally pulled away, we both looked away nervously.  
  
"That was a little sudden," he says, not meeting my eye.  
  
"Very," I agree. "But I'll be honest...I liked it."  
  
He looks towards me slowly and even though he's not smiling, his eyes seem to smile. "Yea, me too."  
  
  
  
Eomer POV  
  
I looked at Talim and was completely disgusted. What was THAT all about? Did she even really know that Daniel guy? Damien? What was his name? Who cared? I was gonna miss her so much for awhile, but she seemed very content just kissing this guy in public.  
  
I shrugged it off. I had been the one that said we'd have to break it off, most likely forever, so I couldn't say anything to her about it. Then I remembered that I had sorta, kinda flirted with another girl tonight...  
  
I was gonna be okay without Talim. I knew I was. It was time I really let her go.  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
Talking with Legolas hadn't been spectacular, really. I'd left the dance early and though two hours passed, Talim didn't come back to the room. She was probably talking with Eomer again. In the morning the schools would officially split and though some people spent their night crying away, I didn't mind so much. It would be less people t keep track of and more room to hang with the friends I did have with me.  
  
Finally, Talim came in. She looked really tired and her black bouncy hair had fallen straight. She sighed happily and fell on the bed. I waited for her to say something about Eomer. "Hanging with Darien was great," she said.  
  
I looked up from my book. "Darien?"  
  
"Yea, we talked for a looong time...and we even kissed."  
  
"Get out!" I exclaim. I jump up on my knees on the bed, dropping my book. "What happened?"  
  
"Well, I told him he had pretty eyes and then talking was over. We kissed!" she says with a smile. "I'm so over Eomer. We haven't dated all summer and it's just better we never get back together. Plus, I'm crazy for my rock in roll surfer, Darien!"  
  
I roll my eyes.  
  
She looks at me. "You're okay with it, right?"  
  
"Of course!" I exclaim. "I'm so over every boy here. But you'll be happy. He gets really sad easy and he can be too emotional for a guy. You'll have to comfort him more often then you ever had to for Eomer, but besides that, he's almost a perfect guy. I should have tried to hook you two up earlier!"  
  
"Oh, he's great," Talim says. "I'm so sick of pretending I'm into football with Eomer. I need someone different."  
  
"He's different all right," I huffed. "Let's go to sleep though. I'm tired."  
  
"Oh, I just want to stay up forever!" she says and falls back on her bed, smiling like a lovesick fifth grader.  
  
"Good night, Talim," I say and turn off the light. 


	19. Connor's Crush

Connor's Crush  
  
Darien POV  
  
Blake, Connor, and I sat on my couch, watching TV like we did together every few days. Since we all lived in the school, it was really easy to get together.  
  
"That girl, Talim, is a babe," Connor says grabbing a handful of popcorn. "She looked so pretty tonight."  
  
"Yea, I'm sure Darien agrees," Blake says. "I assume he does, since he was sucking face with her tonight."  
  
"Oh shut up, Blake," I say. "We both were single and it was just one of those kinda things where it just happens." I looked at Connor. He looked at me, motionless. "Connor, are you okay?"  
  
"Yea," he says, shaking his head. "Just, um, surprised. That's all."  
  
"Cause honestly, I never thought we would, but we actually go together," I say, smiling. "It's like, she's wild and I'm quiet and I hear opposites attract. She can bring out the wild side in me, maybe."  
  
"What I don't understand is, how are you getting all the girls? Every girl that we even know here...you've dated 'em or had something going on with them," Blake says.  
  
"It might be just my great looks and blond hair," I joke. "And I'm hook'n with all the Elvish ladies now."  
  
I punch Connor and Blake and I laugh a little. Connor doesn't make a noise. I look over at him. "Are you okay about me getting with Talim? I know that you think she's great..."  
  
"It's okay!" Connor interrupts, too quickly and too loudly to seem natural. "If you guys don't mind, I've had enough talking and teli. I'm going on a walk."  
  
I frown. "All right, see you later. Are you sure you're okay?"  
  
He runs out before I can even finish.  
  
  
  
Connor POV  
  
I quickly walk out of Darien's room, looking down with my curly brown hair covering my face. I don't know why, but I was feeling so shitty. For some reason, Darien was extremely getting on my nerves. 'Ugh, does he think he's the hottest guy ever?' I thought.  
  
I walked of the building and took a look around. Where was I going to go? My eyes wandered around till I saw a window on the second floor. I'd been in Emma's dorm before and I knew Emma's dorm was also...Talim's.  
  
I went under the window and looked up at it for a moment. 'Maybe I should just walk by myself. Why am I here?' I thought. I glanced at my watch. 'Only twelve and it's Friday! They're probably gone.' I made up my mind to find out. I picked up a pebble from the ground and threw it at their window. Nothing. I threw another one. Still nothing. I sighed and started to walk away, but as soon as I did, the window opened.  
  
"Who is that?" Talim poked her head out of the window. At first I felt as if my heart jumped in my throat. For a moment I just stood there. "Hello?"  
  
"Um, it's Connor. Is Emma there?"  
  
"Yea," Emma poked her head out too. "Connor, what are you doing?"  
  
"I was just walking and then wanted to see if you guys wanted to hit a club for an hour or so. It's Friday..."  
  
"I'll go!" Talim says.  
  
"Yea, me too! It'll take us about ten minutes to get ready. Come up, our door is unlocked.  
  
  
  
Emma POV  
  
In about TWENTY minutes, Talim was ready. I had BEEN ready, but I didn't look near as cute as she did. She was wearing a really pretty red flowery spaghetti strapped dress, whereas I was wearing my favorite jeans and a halter-top. Blake was smiling at Talim, his hands in his khaki pant pockets. He was such a cutie. Too bad he was so shy and insecure or maybe I'd have to like him!  
  
I could tell just by the way he acted, he didn't think he was cute or really special in any way, but he was really smart and sweet...and a total hottie. He just needed to stop purposely hiding that face behind his hair.  
  
"Okay, I'm ready," Talim says.  
  
We get in Talim's car and ride around. "There's the Gimme Club! Why don't we check that out?"  
  
"No!" Talim and I yell together.  
  
"Long story," I say. "But that place is weird."  
  
"A lot of the school was going to the Rio! Maybe they're still there!" I say.  
  
"I'm sure they are. It's a Friday," Talim says.  
  
  
  
Connor POV  
  
We got into the club and instantly Emma and Talim started talking with people they knew...while I just stood around. The music was awesome and I just wanted to ask Talim to dance with me. She'd probably say no and even if she did say yes, what if Darien found out I took his girl to a club and tried to get her to booty dance? He'd kill me.  
  
I glanced over at her. She was smiling this big cute smile while she was talking to a friend. They start laughing and she's laughing so hard, her teeth are showing and she just looks so cute. Her flippy short hair goes into her eyes on one side.  
  
She looks at me, smiling, then take the hair out of her face. I quickly look away...I'm not sure why. I had trouble looking her straight in the face every time she talked. I had lots of girls into me when I was in Rohan a few years back, but they only wanted to lose their virginity, those sluts.  
  
No girl had really cared too much about me and now it was hard for me to get close to a girl...especially when two years ago, Gina Withers, hottest girl in Rohanian High was supposedly into me, but as soon as her ex got jealous, she got back together with him.  
  
'Fuck girls! They're jerks,' I thought. I hadn't had much experience with girls, but that experience was enough to make me want to be alone. 'You got to get over that, Connor. Not all girls are like Gina. Talim seems like such a fun, great girl...' I paused at that thought. Yea, and she had kissed my best friend. And why was I so crazy about her anyways? Was it just that she was gorgeous?  
  
"Are you okay?" I look through my brown hair and move it out of my way. Talim looks up, really hard at me with a sympathetic frown. "You look so sad. Want to talk?" I looked hard right back at her. I liked her so much and it was more than just beauty. She was a spunky, fun person...but she really cared for people too. She wasn't a friend that would leave you when you were sad and was only around when you were fun...she was a real genuine person.  
  
"No, I'm fine," I say, quickly making my face go to normal and I manage to smile a bit.  
  
"Oh, good," she says with a smile. "Cause you can't just stand here! You have to dance! Come on!"  
  
"You'd dance with me?"  
  
"I'm not prejudice against brown haired boys! Why wouldn't I?"  
  
"Well, the way I grew up, we didn't really dance with girls unless they were single or didn't like anyone and you..." I stopped. I wanted to say she liked my best friend, but something held me back.  
  
"Well, in Mirkwood, girls dance with everyone!" she says. "You don't want to dance?"  
  
"Oh, I wanna dance," I say. "And I am a wicked dancer."  
  
She laughs and pulls me onto the dancing floor. Somehow my shyness seems to leave me and Talim dances around me. The music is perfect for dancing! She turns around so I can kinda dance along her back. We're pressed right against each other and though I have chills running up and down my spine, it feels so perfect. She runs her fingers on the sides of my thighs and I rest my hands on her little hips. All of the sudden, she stops and faces me, her face looking flushed. Whoa, that minute seemed to be like a perfect dream.  
  
"I'm sorry," she says, not looking me in the eye. "I'm used to dancing like that with my ex-boyfriend...and, yea. I think I'm gonna go get a drink."  
  
She walks off without looking up at me. She probably wasn't thinking before she started doing it. Great, now she was going to be too embarrassed to ever talk to me.  
  
I watch Talim get something to drink and then sit down by herself. I chew on my lip nervously and then walk towards where she is. I sit across from her and try to think of something to say. "I'm sorry, Talim," I say. "I...I wasn't thinking either. I shouldn't have let you dance with me like that at all. I know you like Darien."  
  
She looks a little surprised, then she goes back to normal. "Yea, you're his best friend. I would think you would know what happened with him and me tonight."  
  
"Yea, well I know you guys kissed. That's all."  
  
"That's all that there is to know besides that I like him a lot," she says. "Please don't tell him any of this. I'm not one of those partying, cheating girls and I don't want him to think I am. It's just the last boyfriend I had would dance with me like that and I have almost forgot any other way to dance. I realized how awkward it was."  
  
I frowned a little. Awkward. That proved that we would never be, huh? If she found getting that close to me, awkward, I might just have to forget about my huge crush for her.  
  
"I wont tell him," I promised.  
  
"Hey guys," Emma comes up and slips in the seat right next to me. "This is kinda gay...why don't we just go to our room and watch a movie?"  
  
"I agree," Talim says.  
  
I try not to look bummed. I liked hanging out with them and I didn't want to go to bed yet.  
  
"You can come too, Connor," Talim says, giving me a wink.  
  
"Yea, we like you. You're cool," Emma says to me, smiling. "Want to?"  
  
I smile a little too much. "Yea, sure!"  
  
  
  
"Oh, I love this part!" Emma says, sort of jumping up and down on the small love seat. It's probably about three now and I'm really tired. I'm not used to staying up THIS late. I blink a few times, trying to wake up, but there's no use trying. If I sit her much longer, I'll fall asleep.  
  
  
  
Talim POV  
  
"Oh, this part is so cute!" I say. All of the sudden, Connor's head falls on my shoulder and he makes a funny noise.  
  
I try not to burst out laughing at the awkwardness of him, passing out on my shoulder, and about to drool on my neck. I push him and then hold him straight up. His eyes open a tiny bit, but then he starts falling forward. Emma gets off the couch and I put his head on one side, when I lift his feet up and put him totally on the couch.  
  
"Now, where do we sit?" Emma says. We are both standing and looking at him sprawled all over our little loveseat.  
  
"On the floor, I guess."  
  
"I love the bay bay bay..." he mutters.  
  
"Bass?" Talim asks.  
  
"Yea, that thingie."  
  
Emma and I burst out laughing and sit down on the floor, going back to our movie.  
  
  
  
Darien POV  
  
"We've watched two movies!" Blake says. "And we're still bored. Why don't we go to Connor's room and make him go somewhere with us? I'm sure he's back from his little walk. He rarely ever sleeps a minute later than two and it's three."  
  
"Yea, okay, let's go," I say, though I really don't understand why Blake wants to wake him up!  
  
We go to his room and knock. "Who is it?" Earfalas, Connor's roommate comes pokes his head out. "What do you want?"  
  
"Is Connor there?" Blake asks if it's the most obvious thing in the world that we want to see him.  
  
"No, I haven't seen him since the dance," Earfalas snaps. "Thanks a lot for waking me up, punks!" He slams the door shut.  
  
"That's weird," Blake says, still staring at the closed door. Then he looks at me. "Where could he be?"  
  
I shrug. "He's not much of a club person...it doesn't make any sense!" 


	20. Of Spilled Drinks and Broken Chairs

I'm so sorry that I've been gone! I feel bad. I've been out and I just forgot to tell you guys. Okay, here we go.  
  
Of Spilled Drinks and Broken Chairs  
  
Connor POV  
  
I woke up with a jump. It was like one of those times where you just jump in your sleep and wake up. I was really thirsty. It was pitch black and a good thing that I knew my way around my dorm room perfectly. I got up from my couch and went straight to bathroom...  
  
With a big crash, I wan into something hard and fell flat on my stomach. I yelled really loud and grabbed my foot that had fallen under me a weird way. I was expecting to see my ugly bitch roommate, Earfalas, to turn on the light, but it was...  
  
"Talim?" I half cried out.  
  
Emma raced to my side. "Connor! Are you okay?"  
  
It all came back to me. Everything I had done last night. An old, red, wooden chair was broken around me. The head of the chair must have left a nice mark on my stomach cause my stomach really hurt. "Ah, I didn't know I was still here," I say. What else can I say?  
  
"Um, sorry about the chair." I started to get up, but as soon as I put pressure on my right leg, I cried and fell again.  
  
"Connor!" Talim exclaimed, trying to help me up with Emma on my other side, doing the same. "Is anything broken?"  
  
I stared at Talim and some reason I couldn't say anything. I remembered everything going dark, even though my eyes were open still. I remembered trying to yell something, but it all disappeared.  
  
  
  
"I don't know HOW he managed to break his foot like THAT," I heard. I also heard a door burst open. "Is he okay?" said Darien. "What happened? Where has he been?"  
  
It took me a few minutes to figure out I was in the hospital or something, even though my head was sort of spinning and my eyes were still closed.  
  
"Darien, don't worry!" I heard Emma. "He was at my room last night and fell over one of my chairs in the dark..."  
  
"Ooh, good going, Connor," I heard Blake sarcastically. "Come over to fuck our Emma, then kills himself over a chair. Good going. VERY smooth."  
  
Before Emma could protest, I managed to open my eyes. "Don't be a fag, Blake," I say. "That's how rumors start."  
  
"Connor!" Talim smiled. "Are you okay?"  
  
"Yea," I say quietly. For some reason, the little image of Talim dancing all against me in a club popped in my mind. I looked at Darien, then Talim again, who both looked relieved that I was okay. Everyone started talking with one another, but I just stared at my friends, thinking.  
  
Last night had been so weird. But I had so much fun spending time with Emma and Talim just by myself. I guess that was natural. It's a guy's dream to spend a night over with two hot girls, but it was so not like that. Talim couldn't spend any alone time with me because of Darien and Emma was busy with random stuff most of the time, so I didn't ever expect anything like that to happen again.  
  
I looked at Talim. Darien was right next to her and they were talking.  
  
"I've been thinking about what happened yesterday," he says, slowly sneaking his arm around her waste.  
  
She smiles at him. "Yea, me too," she whispers.  
  
"Can't you guys do that somewhere else?" Emma says. "I'm sorry, but Connor has a broken foot and you guys just start cuddling up as we're talking about it."  
  
Darien blushes as he looks around all the faces that are staring at him. He puts his arm back to his side.  
  
I realized I was gritting my teeth really hard. Everyone looked back at me, but I looked back at Talim and Darien, again. This just wasn't working out very well. Every time Darien got NEAR her, my arms tensed as if I could punch someone...  
  
That wasn't good at all, considering she wasn't mine and she seemed to be interested in HIM. I'd most likely have to see that all the time from now on.  
  
I sighed to myself. I needed to get a girl. But the only person that came to mind was Talim.  
  
  
  
Legolas POV  
  
It had been impossible to get a hold of Emma all day and I was in my dorm alone...and very bored. I got up and walked out. I had called her, gone to her dorm, and just walked around for a while with nothing to do. I picked up my celphone and started to dial her number.  
  
'Wait a minute,' I said to myself. 'Why do I HAVE to know where she is? It's not like we're dating anymore!'  
  
I walked down to the wizard's cup. No point driving when it was so close. As soon as I got into the wizard's cup, a girl burst out of the door, walking backwards. She turned quickly around, and her cup hit me RIGHT in the chest. I blinked away the coke from my eyes and looked at the petite brunette with her mouth hanging open. It took her a moment to react. "I am so sorry!" she exclaimed.  
  
I looked down at my old Bello surf T that I'd had forever, now with coke spilled down it.  
  
"Oh, don't worry about it," I said, wiping the coke from my face.  
  
"I was being an idiot and wasn't watching where I was going," she said frantically. She looked all cute cause she was so small and pretty and she had this terribly worried face.  
  
I half grinned. "It's no big," I say, taking off my soaked shirt.  
  
"Monica!" I heard Arwen and she came out. "What happened...oh no, Legolas!"  
  
"It's NO big deal," I say, for what felt like the trillionth freakin time. "I'll just go back and get another shirt.  
  
"You can wear this," Arwen says, taking off Aragorn's old football sweatshirt.  
  
"Thanks," I say, taking it. "All right, I'm Legolas...you're Monica?"  
  
"Yes, I am," she says quietly.  
  
"Want to have a mocha? My treat..."  
  
"I'm sorry, but I have to go. I'll see you later. Bye Arwen."  
  
"Bye!" Arwen waves.  
  
"See you," I say.  
  
Arwen and I go into the café. "She likes you," Arwen says. "I could tell as soon as you took off your shirt."  
  
I roll my eyes. "She was very pretty. I like petite girls."  
  
"Perfect!" Arwen says. "You are both single, she's new and unnoticed, she's petite like you like, you're a blond like she likes, and you guys can keep your poor lonely selves accompanied."  
  
I sharpened my eyes at Arwen. "You best not be hooking me up, young lady."  
  
She sighs. "Yea, sorry. Anyways, you were saying something about buying me a mocha?"  
  
I smile and roll my eyes. "All right. This mocha is for you. Waiter!"  
  
  
  
Connor POV  
  
"I am getting out of this god forsaken hospital!!" I told Daniel and Blake. "I'm leaving. Now. I'm fine. We need to start practicing on our newest song."  
  
"Can you play?" Blake asked.  
  
"I don't need my foot to play the bass, smarty. Hand me the crutches. I'll sit on my ass like you and play."  
  
Blake rolled his eyes and handed me my crutches.  
  
"It is cool if we invite Emma and Talim to this practice?" Darien asks.  
  
"Yea, of course," I say, though I'm really not in the mood to see Talim and Darien getting all mushy. "We should get used to playing in front of people."  
  



End file.
